Secret Service boss resigns after Trump rally shooting

Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned from her post after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

- ALEX WOODWARD

Ms Cheatle stepped down one day after she testified to a congressional committee about law enforcement failures during

Mr Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania on 13 July. She has faced widespread calls for her resignation in the aftermath of the attack, where one rally attendee was killed and at least two other people were critically injured.

A joint letter from both Democratic and Republican leaders on the House oversight committee called for her to step down after Monday’s hearing, where lawmakers were repeatedly frustrated by her inability to provide detailed answers about the Secret Service’s actions that day, with one Republican lawmaker telling her she is “full of shit”.

In her testimony, Ms Cheatle said the shooting was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades”. She told the panel that she takes “full responsibility for any security lapse” and pledged to “move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again”.

“There are multiple ongoing investigations into this incident, hundreds of people to interview, and thousands of documents to review,” she said. “I do not want to inadvertently provide you today with inaccurate information … I may not be able to speak specifically to certain items that have circulated over the past nine days.”