Who is Kimberly Cheatle, US Secret Service director who resigned days after Trump's assassination bid?

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Tuesday (Jul 23) resigned after coming under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump. The decision came a day after Cheatle acknowledged that the agency failed in its mission to prevent the assassination bid.

Cheatle was facing calls from both Republicans and Democrats to step down after a 20-year-old gunman wounded the Republican presidential candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The 78-year-old was hit in the ear by thegunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by the Secret Service agents immediately.

In her resignation letter, Cheatle said that she made the "difficult" decision to leave the agency "with a heavy heart".She said, "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director."

Who is Kimberly Cheatle?

Cheatle joined the Secret Service in 1995 and spent more than two decades, including the time when she was part of Biden's security detail while he was vice president.

She left the agencyin 2021 to serve as the Senior Director for Global Security for PepsiCo in North America. Her role for PepsiCo involved developing risk management assessments and risk mitigation strategies.

She returned to the agency after she was appointed by Biden in 2022. At the time, the president had said he had "complete trust" in Cheatle. "When Kim served on my security detail when I was Vice President, we came to trust her judgement and counsel," Biden had said.

Cheatle was the 27th Director of the US Secret Service and wasone of the only two women to ever serve in this post. Previously, she had been the first woman to serve as the agency's assistant director of protective operations.

While weighing in on her career, she once credited her brother for inspiring her. Cheatlehad said that her brother had aspired to be a state trooper but was killed in a car accident in 1988.

She grew up in the US state of Illinois and studied at a Catholic high school in Danville, Ill., which is about 130 miles south of Chicago. According to the News-Gazette, she graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

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What is the Secret Service?

The Secret Service is responsible for the protection of current and former US presidents. When Cheatleappeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday, she told lawmakers she took responsibility for the shooting, calling it the largest failure by the Secret Service since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

The Secret Service faces investigations from multiple congressional committees and the internal watchdog of the US Department of Homeland Security, its parent organisation, over its performance.

Biden has also called for an independent review.

(With inputs from agencies)