Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced impeachment articles against Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday after a fruitless House Oversight Committee hearing in which she provided little to no information on the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
Steube announced his intention to file impeachment articles after Cheatle testified before the committee on what she described as the most “significant operational failure” in decades.
“In light of Kimberly Cheatle’s unacceptable handling of the Trump assassination attempt, her disastrous appearance before the House Oversight Committee today, and her refusal to resign, we have no choice but to impeach,” Steube said in a statement to X.
Many Oversight Committee members expressed frustrations and outright yelled expletives at the director for what they said was stonewalling and lying while under oath regarding the security breach in Butler, Pennsylvania, that allowed a 20-year-old shooter to fire at Trump, kill one rally attendee, and injure two others.
Steube’s impeachment articles note the details of the investigation in Cheatle’s interviews with news outlets following the shooting; both Democrats and Republicans said it was “concerning” Cheatle gave more information to the media than she did before Congress. The articles also blasted diversity, equity, and inclusion quotas as a reason for a lack of security preparation and responsibility.
“Through these actions, Director Cheatle has demonstrated a neglect for her duty to lead the Secret Service in a manner that provides effective protection to protectees, including President Donald Trump,” the impeachment articles state.
In a unique moment of bipartisanship, the committee overwhelmingly agreed that Cheatle needed to resign as leader of the Secret Service. Cheatle has said she will not resign but takes full responsibility for the security failures.
Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called on Cheatle to resign both in the meeting and in a letter to the director after her testimony.
“I don’t want to add to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director, just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point,” Raskin said in the hearing.
“I also didn’t see any daylight between the members of the two parties today at the hearing in terms of our bafflement and outrage about the shocking operational failures that led to disaster and near catastrophe on July 13, 2024,” the ranking member added.
Comer reminded Cheatle at the end of the hearing that she had been subpoenaed to testify.
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“You were subpoenaed today to provide answers, and, ma’am, you did not do that,” the Kentucky Republican said.
House lawmakers are expected to vote on establishing a bipartisan task force to investigate the shooting sometime this week, with reports that it could come as early as Wednesday.