Ex-Secret Service director fires back at Rand Paul's accusations she lied about lack of resources given to Trump's Butler rally
Paul (R-Ky.) alleged that Cheatle had not been truthful to Congress when she testified that the Secret Service didn't deny Trump's team resources it requested for the Butler, Pa. rally.
'The Director of the Secret Service is not typically directly engaged in the approval or denial of requests for support,' she said in a statement Sunday, released by her attorney. 'For the Butler rally, I actually did direct additional assets to be provided, particularly in the form of agency counter-snipers.'
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'Any assertion or implication that I provided misleading testimony is patently false and does a disservice to those men and women on the front lines who have been unfairly disciplined for a team, rather than individual, failure.'
Cheatle's attorney confirmed to The Post that her statement was directed at Paul's report and his 'defamatory comments on Face the Nation' earlier in the day on Sunday.
3 Kimberly Cheatle vehemently refuted allegations that she gave misleading testimony to Congress.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
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3 Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt.
AP
Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released his scathing report on the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt against Trump. It concluded based on documents that there were 'at least two instances of assets being denied' by the Secret Service related to the Butler rally.
That entailed a request for more Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS), which are used to counter drones, which was 'unfulfilled due to the lack of manpower to support the request.'
Additionally, the Secret Service did not provide a Counter Assault Team liaison to coordinate between its operation and the local team, according to testimony from the advance agent.
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Paul's report found that broadly speaking, there were at least 10 major requests for more resources from the president's team during the 2024 campaign cycle that were either denied or unfulfilled.
Cheatle had testified to the House Oversight Committee nine days after the assassination attempt last year that 'for the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied.'
'She did not tell the truth,' Paul told CBS News' 'Face the Nation' on Sunday. 'The primary request that was made by both Trump's Secret Service detail, as well as his campaign, was for counter-snipers.
'Counter-snipers were denied until Butler. So, thank God, on that day in Butler County, Pennsylvania, that was the first time he was allowed counter-snipers.'
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The former Secret Service director revealed that she read through some of the report, was 'aware of certain congressional criticism,' and agrees that 'mistakes were made and reform is needed.'
3 Sen. Rand Paul had ripped into former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle in his report on the assassination attempt.
AFP via Getty Images
She stressed that her testimony to the Oversight Committee was based on 'information provided to me by personnel from Headquarters' as well as current Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who helmed Trump's detail at the time.
Cheatle also paid tribute to the families impacted by the deadly shooting at the rally.
'The tragedy that occurred on July 13, 2024, remains a profound event that deeply affected our nation,' she said. 'My thoughts and heartfelt condolences continue to be with all those impacted.'
Cheatle resigned as Secret Service director a day after she testified before the House Oversight Committee. Acting director Ronald Rowe briefly took her place during the months that followed.
Trump appointed Curran as Secret Service director shortly after taking office again back in January.
Multiple investigations from lawmakers in Congress, as well as law enforcement, have uncovered a myriad of shortcomings in the run-up to the assassination attempt.
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Despite the concerns, Trump has said that he still retains 'great confidence in these people.'
'They should have had somebody in the building [Crooks shot from], that was a mistake,' he told Fox News' 'My View With Lara Trump' in an interview that aired Saturday. 'They should have had communications with the local police, they weren't tied in.
'So there were mistakes made … But I was satisfied in terms of the bigger plot, the larger plot,' he added. 'I have great confidence in these people. I know the people. And they're very talented, very capable. But they had a bad day. And I think they'll admit that. They had a rough day.'
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Newsweek
14 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Map Shows States Hitting Trump With Major $6.8 Billion Lawsuit
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Nearly half of the country's states and the District of Columbia (DC) sued the Trump administration on Monday for $6.8 billion over education funding being withheld. The coalition of 24 states and DC launched the suit against President Donald Trump, Linda McMahon in her capacity as secretary of education, the Education Department, Russ Vought as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the OMB. The suit alleges that the Trump administration has "unlawfully frozen over $6 billion in education funding for K-12 schools and adult education." The states say the freeze is unlawful because the funds were appropriated by Congress to be given to the states on July 1 and are currently being withheld by the president for a "review." 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New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
The Epstein Saga
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The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump just gave Putin a 50-day license to kill in Ukraine
President Trump's announcement on Monday morning in the White House Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was good in that the President has finally come to realize that Russian President Vladimir Putin first 'talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening.' Trump yet again said he is 'not happy with President Putin at all' and that the White House gets 'a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin.' Also good is that Trump confirmed a deal with NATO allies to sell them weapons and munitions to arm Ukraine. On July 8, Trump had stated, 'We're going to send some more weapons. We have to — they have to be able to defend themselves.' However, a list of the weapons and munitions was not provided during the meeting. But Trump's announcement was not so good in that he gave Putin an additional 50 days to agree to a cease-fire deal, or else face 'very severe secondary tariffs' and sanctions. Trump said the tariffs would start at about 100 percent, a stark contrast to the 500 percent tariff in the sanctions bill authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Russian oil imports, which targets not only Russia but also nations such as China, India, and Turkey that continue to purchase its energy resources. Since July 4, Russia has launched relentless and unabated aerial bombardments of Ukrainian cities, with scores of ballistic missiles and 500 to 700 drones every evening specifically targeting civilians. In June alone, Russia launched over 5,438 drones. Ukraine can ill-afford 50 more days of days of aerial strikes and a likely ground offensive in the Sumy region. It is, in effect, giving Putin a 50-day license to continue targeting Ukrainian civilians — men, women and children alike. Seventeen new Patriot missile batteries, while welcomed, will not stop Ukrainians from being killed and maimed by daily large-scale drone and ballistic missile attacks. While they are a necessity to interdict Russian missiles, they have no effect on Russian drones. Nor do they have any effect on Russian ground forces staging in Russia and fighting in Ukraine, which according to Putin number 700,000, nor on the 30,000 North Korean soldiers preparing to deploy to Russia. Although Monday's announcement is a step in the right direction, at first glance, it seems to be more of former President Joe Biden's overly reactive and defensive ' just-enough-not-to-lose ' strategy for aiding Ukraine, which already failed. Significantly, the word 'win' was not spoken during the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Rutte. Biden could not say 'win' either — and two-and-a-half years into the war, he too was solely playing for the tie in Ukraine while Putin was playing to win. Nothing has changed since 2023. As we warned Saturday, 'Putin still believes he can win his war against Ukraine and he has no intention of stopping.' And as Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, stated, 'He will not sacrifice his goals in Ukraine for the sake of improving relations with Trump.' Team Trump needs a winning strategy. Defending is not winning but rather just prolonging the war. As Gen. George Patton once put it, 'Nobody ever defended anything successfully.' The second half of the quote — 'there is only attack and attack and attack some more' — is what is missing in Trump's response to Russia. If Trump really wants peace, Putin is going to need a good punch to the face first. Absent a defining blow, Putin will never give up on conquering Ukraine. Yet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stands ready to throw that punch — just as Israel did in Iran — if greenlighted and fully equipped by NATO. That is the only way Putin will be made to understand that he cannot win. Yet Trump, like Biden before him, appears to be playing for a tie. Team Trump continues searching for that ever-elusive deal that Putin legitimately does not want. In doing so, the White House is effectively punting to our European NATO partners the problem of deterring and containing Russia Meanwhile, Putin's army last month seized control of a key lithium field in eastern Ukraine. If this gain is not reversed, it will negatively affect Trump's much-vaunted mineral deal. The field is believed to be one of Ukraine's most valuable lithium deposits. Given Trump's 50-day reprieve, Putin also has a 50-day license to steal still more Ukrainian territory and to eat into the U.S. rare earth minerals pact. Trump, as he did again during his meeting with Rutte, often says that the war in Ukraine is not his war, but that of the Biden Administration. Maybe so, but it is now Trump's war to win or lose. Renewing arms shipments to Ukraine through NATO cannot not be the only tool in his kit. It needs to be coupled with the proposed Senate sanctions bill and a willingness to use $5 billion in frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine. Why wait 50-days to deploy this one-two punch of instruments of military and economic national power now? Putin will not wait — and, most assuredly, many more innocent Ukrainian civilians will die at the hands of his military. The time has come to stop playing for a tie and stop taking 50-day time outs. The U.S. and NATO must enable Ukraine to win this war with offensive weapons, munitions, and intelligence. Deep strikes and interdiction are essential to isolating and removing Russian forces from Ukraine. Defeating Russia's ability to produce and deploy drones is essential as well. No more sanctuary can be afforded to Russia by Western weapons and their munitions. Otherwise, the blitz of ballistic missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities — reminiscent of Operation Linebacker II, designed to bring North Vietnam back to the negotiation table — will continue unabated. Let's build on the good part of this plan and immediately revoke Putin's 50-day license to kill.
