President Joe Biden ordered Secret Service protection for former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned in disgrace after the assassination attempt on former President Trump, three Secret Service sources told Real Clear Politics (RCP).
Biden took the unprecedented measure of supplying Cheatle protection under the Dignitary Protective Division, the agents told RCP.
He ordered the protective detail because Cheatle was facing “numerous threats” from individuals on social media after the agency’s failures during Trump’s assassination attempt and her “lack of transparency” during her July 22 testimony to the House Oversight Committee, RCP reported.
Cheatle is the first former director in Secret Service history to receive taxpayer-funded Secret Service protection, sources told RCP.
President Biden has ordered Secret Service to provide a protective detail to former agency director Kimberly Cheatle, @SusanCrabtree scoops. https://t.co/5X6zCn8XqG
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 16, 2024
Cheatle stepped down following a rash of bipartisan criticism after the July 13 assassination attempt. (RELATED: Secret Service Agent Abandoned Post Guarding Trump To Breastfeed: REPORT)
One pointed criticism lawmakers had was that Cheatle’s agency repeatedly denied Trump campaign requests for additional security, something the Secret Service confirmed, CNN reported.
First Lady Jill Biden had a speaking event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, roughly 90 miles from the Butler, Pennsylvania, location where Trump was shot, on the same day. She would typically have a more robust detail as a member of an incumbent presidential administration, former Secret Service agent Dean Peterson told the Caller.
Jill Biden had a significant hand in Cheatle’s selection as head of the agency, sources told the New York Post. Cheatle served on Jill’s detail when she was the Second Lady in the Obama administration, a Democratic insider told the outlet.
One of Jill’s top aides, Anthony Bernal, also pushed heavily for President Biden to tap Cheatle as agency head, according to the Post.
“I heard at the time she was being considered for director that Anthony had pushed her forward as an option,” a source told the Post.