US Representative for Florida’s 17th congressional district, Greg Steube on Monday filed an impeachment resolution against Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for her “dereliction of duty” in failing to protect former President Trump from a would-be assassin at his rally on 13 July.
Steube said in a press release: “The Secret Service calls themselves ‘one of the most elite law enforcement agencies in the world’. What happened under their watch in Butler, Pennsylvania was an international embarrassment and an inexcusable tragedy.”
“Today I’m exercising our Congressional authority of oversight by filing an article of impeachment against Director Cheatle for her dereliction of duty as it relates to the assassination attempt on President Trump’s life,” he continued.
The lawmaker referred to reports that indicated the Secret Service received warnings about suspicious activity ahead of the actual shooting. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet, before he was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents. A rally attendant, Corey Comperatore, was killed shielding his family from the gunfire, while two other people were seriously injured.
Questions have been mounting since the days after the shooting about how an armed attacker could get access to a building just approximately 130 yards away from the stage of the rally, with an unobstructed view of the former president.
“Every supervisor in that chain of command should be fired immediately and that starts with the Director. An American hero is dead and several severely wounded as a result of the Secret Service failure to protect President Trump,” he said, adding, “All in the chain of command including the Director should be held responsible.”
Steube’s resolution includes one impeachment article for “dereliction of duty.”
The article says Cheatle, as director, “negligently failed to uphold the agency’s mission and statutory charge to ‘ensure the safety and security’ of ‘protectees, key locations, and events of national significance,’” and noted that “the Secret Service is tasked with providing protection to former Presidents as well as ‘major Presidential candidates.’”
The impeachment resolution also criticizes Cheatle for focusing on increasing the number of female agents, with a goal of 30 percent of all recruits to be women by 2030. The article suggests Cheatle “chose to focus on the gender of recruits instead of their fitness for the job.”
“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. Wherefore, Kimberly A. Cheatle, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States,” the resolution concludes.
The resolution came as a result of increased calls for Cheatle to resign, in particular following Cheatle’s House Oversight Committee testimony, where she failed to address some of the lawmakers’ key questions about the shooting.
In a rare show of bipartisanship, ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a joint letter after the hearing calling for her resignation.
“Particularly after her abysmal testimony today before the Oversight Committee, where little to no questions were properly answered and she doubled down on her refusal to resign, we have no choice but to impeach Director Cheatle,” Steube added in his press release.
The US Secret Service’s response to this resolution is being awaited.
Source: The Hill
