Secrecy at USSS: Ex-director who oversaw Butler rally almost got security clearance back — and Curran likely knew



Sean Curran, the director of the Secret Service, who was on duty during the deadly assassination attempt in Butler a year ago, almost certainly knew that his agency was planning to restore former Director Kimberly Cheatle's security clearance when it abruptly reversed course, Blaze News has learned.

On Friday, Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics revealed that the USSS had quietly begun the process of restoring Cheatle's security clearance. However, when RCP contacted the agency and revealed that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) vehemently opposed the restoration, the agency suddenly decided that Cheatle's security clearance would not be renewed.

Johnson spokeswoman Avery Selby told RCP that the senator's office learned that her security clearance would not be renewed on the same day that RCP contacted the USSS about Johnson's concerns.

Sources told Crabtree that there is no way that Curran did not know about the pending restoration of Cheatle's security clearance.

Johnson seems grateful for the about-face. "Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign," he said in a statement, according to RCP. "I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated."

Cheatle, who was at the helm at the time of the Butler shooting, resigned in disgrace less than two weeks later after a disastrous appearance before the House Oversight Committee, where she refused to answer certain questions and even infamously blamed a major security breach on a sloped roof.

RELATED: Secret Service director resigns in disgrace 1 day after refusing accountability for worst agency failure in 4 decades

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Blaze News has since learned that current Director Curran, one of the Secret Service agents who bravely whisked Trump off the stage to safety that fateful day, most likely knew that a restoration of his predecessor's security clearance was in the works.

Sources told Crabtree that there is no way that Curran did not know about the pending restoration of Cheatle's security clearance, Crabtree told Blaze News.

"Renewing Cheatle’s security clearance provides no benefit to U.S. national security of the American taxpayers but would help her land another lucrative security job at a Fortune 500 company or elsewhere," Crabtree told Blaze News.

"It’s not a good look for Sean Curran, to say the least. If Sean Curran knew that her security clearance was up for renewal and was allowing it — it would be news and concerning if he didn’t know — than it shows he was willing to continue the status quo during a period that requires significant agency reform to continue to safeguard President Trump’s life and our continuity of government."

Blaze News reached out to the USSS for clarification on what Director Curran knew and when, but received only the same statement given to RCP that makes no direct mention of Cheatle.

The U.S. Secret Service sponsors security clearances for all the former directors for their knowledge of operational and national security matters. The purpose for this was so the agency could maintain formal and protected communication including potentially sensitive and classified matters with former officials. Since appointed, Director Curran has been building a dynamic team of knowledgeable advisers that will help implement his vision for the agency. Additionally, Director Curran has been modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency. During that process, he has determined that not all former directors will have their clearances renewed.

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DEI run amok? Secret Service 'cat fight' outside Obama home raises questions



Two female Secret Service agents were caught on video tussling outside former President Barack Obama's residence in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, reigniting concerns that diversity, equity, and inclusion-related policies implemented under previous administrations continue to impact the agency negatively.

Around 2:30 a.m. on May 21, two agents assigned to guard the Obama home "got into a physical fight," according to Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics. Crabtree confirmed to Blaze News that both women are black. They were also likely armed at the time.

Crabtree told Blaze News that the altercation began after an agent with 15 years' experience became upset that her shift replacement, an agent with three years' experience, arrived late and in the wrong vehicle. The more senior agent then reportedly made a call to a Secret Service line, threatening violence in notably crude, colloquial terms.

"Can I get a supervisor down to Delta 2 before I whoop this girl's a**?" she said, according to audio shared by Crabtree.

RELATED: Secret Service places at least 5 agents on leave weeks after Trump assassination attempt

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'We likely witnessed the catastrophic consequences of sacrificing job knowledge, skills, fitness standards, and personal conduct in favor of immutable gender and racial characteristics to meet arbitrary diversity standards.'

Shortly after that call, the fight broke out, Crabtree explained. She later shared video of it on X:

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The crass language and brief scuffle both seem to qualify as "offenses" delineated in a "Professionalism in the Workforce" report prepared by the USSS and submitted to Congress by the Department of Homeland Security in 2015.

Screenshot of USSS report

In a statement obtained by Blaze News, the Secret Service acknowledged the "on-duty altercation" involving "two Uniformed Division officers." The statement claimed that both participants have been "suspended from duty."

"The Secret Service has a very strict code of conduct for all employees and any behavior that violates that code is unacceptable. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further," the statement said.

A representative for Obama did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Crabtree indicated to Blaze News that the fracas is yet another example of the "lowering of standards" at the "once-vaunted agency." She added that officials must give a strong response to it to demonstrate that they take such incidents "seriously."

Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend claimed it is yet another "real-world consequence" of identity politics.

"Here we likely witnessed the catastrophic consequences of sacrificing job knowledge, skills, fitness standards, and personal conduct in favor of immutable gender and racial characteristics to meet arbitrary diversity standards," Friend said in a statement to Blaze News.

'What I’ve seen ... is a different set of standards based on gender.'

As the incident apparently involved two black female officers, many have begun to wonder whether past DEI emphases still affect the agency today, despite President Donald Trump's efforts to eradicate DEI policies across the federal government.

Though the alleged aggressor in the fight has been with the force for 15 years, the other officer joined just three years ago under President Joe Biden, who appointed Kimberly Cheatle to be USSS director in 2022. Just the second woman in history to lead the agency, Cheatle took several steps to increase female and minority representation at the Secret Service, including joining the 30x30 initiative, which called on law enforcement agencies across the country to increase female participation in policing to 30% by 2030.

Cheatle was still at the helm on July 13, 2024, when then-candidate Trump was shot and nearly assassinated during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Iconic images from the shooting showed both male and female Secret Service agents hustling to protect Trump and to shuttle him off the rally stage to safety.

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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Video taken moments later went viral because it featured multiple female USSS agents gathered around the vehicle that would transport Trump away from the area. On the video, a heavyset female agent — seen in the above photo sliding off stage — struggled to holster her weapon. She and other agents, according to Friend, "appeared overwhelmed by the situation."

Cheatle resigned 10 days later.

In February, Special Agent Rashid Ellis, a 13-year veteran of the USSS, stated publicly that DEI policies were at least partially responsible for the Butler shooting. "My initial thoughts when seeing the Butler assassination attempt was dread," Ellis told the Independent Women’s Forum. "My stomach was in knots watching it because we had known for years that this was coming."

Though black, Ellis said he was passed up for a leadership position in part because of the agency's focus on gender "quotas."

"I’ve always viewed [it] as an honor and privilege to serve in this capacity. However ... what I’ve seen with the United States is a different set of standards based on gender."

While sources told Crabtree that some women at the USSS do excellent work, others have difficulty meeting physical standards and maintaining professionalism.

"To be in the Secret Service, you have to be worthy of trust and confidence," Ellis explained.

"Real danger is out there. We need to restore confidence. We have to be focused on the threat that’s outside and the threat that’s in front of us."

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‘Preventable’ mistakes led to first Trump assassination attempt: House report



The House bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump released a report Monday revealing "stunning" and "preventable" security failures that took place ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

The report details the lack of coordination, communication, and planning at "several pivotal moments" between the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement prior to the rally, as well as the security risks that were overlooked. As a result, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire shots at the former president from an exposed rooftop positioned just 150 yards from the rally stage, killing an attendee and injuring two others.

'There were security failures on multiple fronts.'

"Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened," the report reads.

The report reiterated the Secret Service's negligence leading up to the rally, confirming that there was no joint meeting between the federal, state, and local agencies to coordinate security the day of the event. The task force also found that the agency identified several security risks outside the perimeter but failed to actually secure them.

As a result of these failures, Crooks was spotted by multiple attendees, flagged as suspicious by Secret Service agents, and identified by a local counter-sniper over an hour before he fired shots at Trump.

"In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country's most elite group of security professionals," Chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said in the report. "There were security failures on multiple fronts."

Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before Congress on July 22, less than two weeks after the assassination attempt in Butler, receiving bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers. The day after her evasive testimony, Cheatle resigned from her post.

Just two months after the Butler rally shooting, Trump survived a second assassination attempt.

58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was apprehended on Sept. 24 after a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted his rifle and scope poking out of the bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Routh was later charged with attempting to assassinate Trump.

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Top 10 questions Americans should be asking about the Trump near-assassination



It’s been one month since former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“And yet, what do we know about this attempt to murder the former president of the United States?” asks Liz Wheeler. “We don't know much.”

Therefore, “we are going to catalog the 10 questions that you and I, as American citizens, must demand that our government, which is supposed to represent us, answer,” she says, noting that the mainstream media is “not only incurious” as to what actually happened on July 13 but has also effectively “[buried] this story.”

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1. What ideology motivated Crooks?

“What was Thomas Crooks’ ideology” and “what was known about [him] before the shooting?”

“There is no way that there is not a digital trail of the ideology of Thomas Crooks,” says Liz, pointing out that as a member of Gen Z, Crooks must have some kind of “digital footprint.”

“It's being hidden from us. Why?” she asks. “We must find out the answer to that question.”

2. Why no counter drones?

“Thomas Crooks flew a drone over the Butler County rally area some hours before Donald Trump took the stage,” which should have been picked up by the Secret Service's counter drones that are designed to “identify if there are hostile drones.”

Suspiciously, “on this day, July 13, 2024, the U.S. Secret Service counter drones weren't working.”

“Why did these U.S. Secret Service counter drones not work? Who was in charge of them? Was it a mechanical issue? Was it a communication issue? And most importantly, was it unusual for the U.S. Secret Service countersurveillance drones not to be working?”

3. Why wasn’t Trump removed from the stage?

“At three and a half minutes prior to the shooting, Thomas Crooks was seen on the roof; at 30 seconds prior to the shooting, Secret Service knew he was armed and lying on the roof.”

“Who then made the call … not to remove Donald Trump from the stage at that point, when law enforcement was aware of an armed, credible, and accessible threat? ... Who allowed him to stay on stage?”

4. Why wasn’t Crooks neutralized sooner?

“18 minutes before Trump took the stage, Secret Service knew that Thomas Crooks had a range finder. Why was he not neutralized at that point? Why was he not confronted? Why was he not arrested?”

“Why did it take until he had fired those shots for him to be addressed? Who was in charge of that decision?”

5. Why did the three snipers assigned to watch the roof abandon post?

There were three snipers assigned to the window that overlooked the sloped roof that former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle maintained was too dangerous for her agents to stand on.

However, “all three of those snipers abandoned their post moments before the shooting.”

“Why? Where did they go? Who gave them the direction to leave?”

6. Was Crooks groomed by the feds?

“Are we willing to consider that the feds may have groomed Thomas Crooks into an attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump?”

Liz contends that this question is absolutely necessary “because if we look at the history of our country, we know that our government has abused citizens in the past” and “targeted politicians that the Deep State dislikes.”

She cites the following examples: the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy, the FBI “fomenting the riots outside of the capital on January 6,” and the FBI grooming “ne'er-do-wells and homeless people” into staging the kidnapping of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.

“If we are unwilling to even investigate whether this happened, if we come at this analysis with preconceived notions or preconceived conclusions that no, the government couldn't have been involved in any way, then we are no better than the mainstream media,” she says.

7. Why was the Trump campaign denied additional SS coverage?

“Why did the Secret Service lie about denying resources to the Trump campaign when the Trump campaign requested additional security? What was the justification for the denial of those requests, and who made that call?"

8. Does our government even care to know the truth?

Liz’s eighth question is specifically for “the elected representatives of the United States of America … both Democrat and Republican.”

“Do you care that the former president of the United States was targeted for assassination? Do you care that this could happen again? Do you care what the implications of this would have been had Donald Trump not turned his head at the last second to look at that chart?”

“Do you understand that this would have thrown our country into a civil war?”

9. Have any additional threats been identified?

“Are there any more known threats trying to gain access to President Trump or to his family? If so, what's being done to protect them so that what happened on July 13 does not happen again?”

10. Why is Ronald Rowe the one leading the investigation?

“The formal investigation … is being headed by the acting director of the Secret Service” – Ronald Rowe – who also happens to be “the former deputy director of the Secret Service.”

“He was involved in decisions leading up to the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The failure to protect Donald Trump is as much his responsibility as Kimberly Cheatle’s, and yet now he's the one supposedly conducting oversight and investigating what happened?” says Liz, adding that this “disgusts” her.

“Donald Trump was almost killed on stage at a rally because leftists have spent the last eight years calling him Hitler and a dictator and authoritarian and telling LGBTQIA-identifying people and black people and women that they are on the verge of genocide, that our democracy is under attack, and that Donald Trump is the reason why,” says Liz, adding that “this hatred and fear has been fomented to the point that someone is willing to murder president Trump rather than letting an election take place.”

We need answers. Now.

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