Who is Kimberly Cheatle? Meet under-fire Secret Service Director who is facing scrutiny after Donald Trump assassination attempt

Serious questions are being asked of the Secret Service over their handling of the Pennsylvania rally where former president Donald Trump was nearly killed by a shooter. 

Trump was shot in the ear around 10 minutes after he took to the stage near Butler, in the southwest of the state, on Saturday. 

The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper, after he fired several shots at those attending the rally, injuring two more people and killing one person. 

But the entire situation may have been avoidable, with one eyewitness claiming they warned law enforcement that they had spotted a man armed with a rifle crawling along a nearby rooftop. 

The director of the 159-year-old agency, Kimberly Cheatle, has already been called to appear before the House Oversight Committee to be grilled over her organisation's handling of the Butler shooting. 

Cheatle's 2022 appointment was already controversial, and the near-death of the former president has only compounded fears that she may be the wrong woman for the job. 

But who exactly is Kimberly Cheatle? MailOnline takes a look at the current director of the Secret Service. 

The director of the 159-year-old agency, Kimberly Cheatle, (pictured, right) has already been called to appear before the House Oversight Committee to be grilled

Trump was shot in the ear around 10 minutes after he took to the stage

He was seen with blood across his face on Saturday 

Early Career 

Cheatle joined the Secret Service in 1995 and worked her way up the ranks while having to protect political leaders in some of the most pivotal moments in modern American history.

She was involved in evacuating former vice-president Dick Cheney during the September 11th attacks in 2001. 

The law enforcement official graduated from the agency's senior executive service programme, and ended up working as the deputy assistant director for the Office of Training in the agency. 

There, she 'revolutionized the way training at the Secret Service was delivered by implementing a regional, in-service training programme', according to Security Magazine. 

She was then tasked with supervising Joe Biden's security detail when he was vice-president during the Obama administration, from 2009 to 2017. 

Following her time with Biden, she was then made assistant director of Protective Operations, a department with a nearly $134million budget that aims to 'research, develop and deploy technologies that reduce risks to protectees, protected facilities, and protected events', according to the Secret Service's website. 

Having spent over two decades in the Secret Service, she left to join PepsiCo as its senior director of global security, where she was in charge of developing security protocols for the multinational's sites in North America. 

She said of her time there: 'I like having diverse assignments and multiple things on my plate. I thrive on chaos.'

While she was at PepsiCo, she was awarded a Presidential Rank Award for 'exceptional performance' by Joe Biden.  

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa.

Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event

The shooter was taken out by a Secret Service sniper 

Current Service  

Biden cited her service in his security detail when he appointed her to the head of the agency in late 2022. She is only the second ever woman to lead the Secret Service in its entire history. 

He said at the time: 'Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job and to the Secret Service’s people and mission. 

'When Kim served on my security detail when I was Vice President, we came to trust her judgement and counsel. 

'She is a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills, and was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service. 

'She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her.'

Cheatle took control of the agency at a time when it was rocked by several scandals related to missing texts to and from its agents on January 6 2021, when the US Capital was stormed by violent anti-Biden protestors. 

The agency's parent organisation, the Department of Homeland Security, has been accused of not cooperating with House committees investigating the attack. 

On top of this, there have several instances over the last ten years of drunken behaviour and deals with sex workers by Service agents during and ahead of foreign trips, as well as failures to prevent fence jumpers from getting into the land the White House sits on. 

One particularly embarrassing moment saw a couple sneak into a state dinner at the White House in 2009.

The couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi of Virginia, managed to sneak into the receiving line in the Blue Room, as Barack and Michelle Obama greeted the invited 400 guests. 

The couple were seen standing next to the then-prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh. 

Trump raised a fist as he was taken off the stage by Secret Service members

One eyewitness said he saw someone crawling along the roof in the minutes before the shooting

What does Cheatle face now? 

All of the Secret Service's failures over the past decade were brought back into the spotlight over the weekend, and as the head of the agency, Cheatle faces severe scrutiny. 

The agency was forced to deny a claim by Florida representative Mike Waltz that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly denied requests to increase the Secret Service's protections. 

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said on X: 'There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the former president’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. 

'In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.'

Even so, Cheatle is expected to be held accountable for the alleged failures in Pennsylvania over the weekend. 

On July 22, she will be dragged in front of the House Oversight Committee to attend a hearing. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on X on Sunday: 'The House will conduct a full investigation of the tragic events.

'The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP.'