Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies about Trump shooting

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared Monday before lawmakers expressing anger over security lapses that allowed an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally.

A 20-year-old gunman, later identified by investigators as Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed atop the roof of a nearby building at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired his weapon, according to authorities. Trump was wounded in the right ear, one rally-goer was killed and two others were injured. Secret Service gunmen killed the shooter.

RELATED: Trump shooter's parents called police hours before assassination attempt

The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.

Congressional committees and the Biden administration have launched a series of investigations over the attack at Trump’s rally.

Cheatle previously told ABC News that the shooting was "unacceptable." When asked who bears the most responsibility, she said ultimately it is the Secret Service that protects the former president.

"The buck stops with me," Cheatle said. "I am the director of the Secret Service." She said she has no plans to resign, and so far she has the administration’s backing.

Here’s what to know about Cheatle’s hearing on Monday:

She apologized to Trump

Cheatle testified she apologized to Donald Trump during a phone call after his assassination attempt.

Testimony over ‘suspicious person’

Lawmakers peppered Cheatle with questions about how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded and about why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Crooks as suspicious.

Cheatle acknowledged that Secret Service were told about a suspicious person "somewhere between two and five times" before the shooting.

Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been seen by local law enforcement before the shooting with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target. She said the Secret Service would have paused the rally if agents had been told there was an "actual threat," but she said there's a difference between someone identified as suspicious and someone identified as a true threat.

Cheatle says, ‘We failed.’

In her opening remarks, Cheatle said the assassination attempt on Trump was "the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades."

"On July 13, we failed," she continued. 

She said she was taking full responsibility and has already implemented changes ahead of the results of independent investigations, and said nothing she's said in recent days should be taken as passing blame to the other federal, state or local partners that were on site that day.  

Who is Kimberly Cheatle?

Democratic President Joe Biden appointed Cheatle in August 2022 to take over an agency with a history of scandals, and she worked to bolster diverse hiring, especially of women in the male-dominated service. 

The second woman to lead the Secret Service, Cheatle worked her way up for 27 years before leaving in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.

Now, she faces her most serious challenge: figuring out what went wrong with the agency’s core responsibility to protect presidents and whether she can maintain the support — or the job itself — to make changes.

Secret Service acknowledges denying some past requests by Trump's campaign for tighter security

In the immediate aftermath of the July 13 attack on the Republican presidential nominee, the Secret Service denied rejecting some requests by Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt.

But the agency acknowledged late Saturday, a week after the attempt on Trump's life, that it had, in fact, turned back some requests to increase security around Trump, according to the Associated Press. 

The reversal is likely to be a key focus of Monday’s congressional hearing with Cheatle.

"The Secret Service has a vast, dynamic, and intricate mission. Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other challenging environments," the agency's chief spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a statement released late Saturday to The Washington Post. 

The newspaper was first to report on the agency's reversal, which it said was based on detailed questions submitted to the agency.

"We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs," Guglielmi said.

He said the agency will rely on state and local law enforcement departments in some cases where specialized Secret Service units are unavailable.

"In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee," Gugliemi said. "This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. It was reported from Cincinnati.

Donald J. TrumpCrime and Public Safety2024 ElectionU.S.