Ex-Secret Service Director Denies She Failed to Send Agents to Protect Trump

For the first time since she resigned in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump a year ago, Kimberly A. Cheatle, the former Secret Service director, pushed back publicly on congressional criticism that she had denied additional security requests for a campaign event that day in Butler, Pa.

“For the Butler rally, I actually did direct additional assets to be provided, particularly in the form of agency countersnipers,” Ms. Cheatle said in a statement. One of those was the sniper who shot and killed Mr. Trump’s would-be assassin. But that came after the man, Thomas Crooks, successfully evaded a search to find him, climbed onto a roof of a nearby building and fired eight shots at Mr. Trump while he was speaking. One of the bullets grazed Mr. Trump before he was moved to safety by his security detail.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a final report early Sunday on the Senate panel’s finding that “stunning failures” by the Secret Service led to the near assassination of Mr. Trump. Several other investigations into the security failures came to the same conclusion last year.

The report revealed little new information about the failures that led to a 20-year-old gunman’s ability to fire shots from a roof of a building with a direct line of sight to where Mr. Trump was speaking at a fairground.

Ms. Cheatle disputed the report’s claim that she lied during congressional testimony about having denied additional security measures for the July 13, 2024, rally.

“Any assertion that I provided misleading testimony is patently false and does a disservice to those men and women on the front lines who have been unfairly disciplined for a team, rather than an individual, failure,” Ms. Cheatle said.