Secret Service’s Deputy Director Appointed as Acting Director

July 23rd, 1:27 PM EDT

By NEWSnet Digital Team

U.S. Secret Service illustration

Tia Dufour / United States Secret Service via MGN

WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) – Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe has been appointed acting director of the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

This is in the aftermath of Kimberly Cheatle resigning Tuesday as the agency's director. She had testified before a House committee Monday on the circumstances surrounding the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump when he was at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump and two rally attendees were injured amid the shooting; another attendee was killed. Secret Service officers killed the shooter on scene.

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Rowe is a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service and has served as deputy director since April 2023.

“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

Mayorkas said he has the “utmost confidence in Deputy Director Rowe and the men and women of the Secret Service, who put their lives on the line every day and deserve our full support.”

In the meantime, President Joe Biden said in a statement that he’s grateful for Cheatle’s decades of public service and “wishes her all the best.”

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