The Secret Service was moving forward with renewing former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s top-level security clearance but reversed course after RealClearPolitics inquired about a key senator’s opposition, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and previously chaired the full Homeland Security panel, argued that Cheatle should not have her security clearance renewed after her leadership decisions contributed to the agency’s numerous failures surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,” Johnson told RCP. “I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated.”
Asked for comment on Johnson’s opposition, the Secret Service issued a vague statement saying Secret Service Director Sean Curran, a Trump appointee, had decided that “not all former directors” should have their security clearances renewed.
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