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(NewsNation) — Lawmakers are calling on top law officials to testify after a shooting at a Pennsylvania Trump rally injured the former president, killed a firefighter and critically hurt two more civilians.
The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents just seconds into the attempted assassination.
“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,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Axios reports Cheatle, along with other major players in safety of former and current presidents, are expected to appear at a House Oversight Committee hearing about the rally shooting on July 22.
Who is Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle?
Cheatle is the 27th Director of the U.S. Secret Service and was sworn in to office on Sept. 17, 2022 during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The second woman to lead the Secret Service, Cheatle spent nearly three decades in the Secret Service in various roles before her appointment.
Prior to rejoining the agency in 2022, Cheatle served as senior director in global security at PepsiCo, where she “was responsible for directing and implementing security protocols for the company’s facilities in North America,” according to her Secret Service biography.
What to know about Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle
One of Cheatle’s former Secret Service positions included working on the Vice Presidential Protective Division when Biden was former President Barack Obama’s second in command.
United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle speaks during a press conference at the Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office on June 4 2024 in Chicago, Illinois, ahead of the 2024 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP) (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden cited this relationship and her prior experience in an August 2022 statement announcing her leadership appointment.
“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,” said Biden.
Cheatle took charge of the Secret Service in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her,” the statement read.
History of the Secret Service
The Secret Service is one of the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies. First created in1865 to address counterfeiting in America’s financial infancy, the agents now-synonymous with presidential office began as a bureau in the Treasury Department.
The agency’s role shifted as a result of an assassination, according to the Secret Service’s official website.
“After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the Secret Service was tasked with the full-time protection of the President of the United States,” it reads. “Over time, this protective mission has been expanded by statutory changes, Presidential Decision Directives, Homeland Security Presidential Directives, National Security Presidential Directives, and various Executive Orders.”
In 1998, the agency once again expanded due to Presidential Decision Directive 62 (PDD 62), which “established the Secret Service as the lead federal agency for coordinating the development and implementation of security plans for National Special Security Events (NSSEs).”
NSSEs include:
- Major political party conventions
- Inaugurations
- Summits with other world leaders
- U.N. assemblies
- Major sporting events, abroad and domestic
- State of the Union addresses
- State funerals
- Other “events of national significance”
Trump’s assassination attempt
The Saturday attack is the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Law enforcement officials tell the Associated Press that bomb-making materials were found inside a vehicle linked to the suspect in the Trump rally shooting. There were also bomb-making materials found at his home. The two officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses told NewsNation affiliates about their experiences, with multiple people claiming they saw Crooks climbing up to the roof of a building outside of the rally’s perimeter. Police were allegedly alerted about the armed man, but it’s unclear how law enforcement and the Secret Service interacted with each other during the event.
NewsNation’s Damita Menezes, Sean Noone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.