Recently resigned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle got start in Michigan

Editor's note: This story was updated after Cheatle resigned Tuesday to reflect her departure.

The U.S. Secret Service director who resigned following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump started her long career with the agency in Michigan.

Kimberly Cheatle heard numerous calls from legislators to resign during a heated House Oversight Committee hearing on the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump this month at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, she did just that.

But long before her tenure ended at the agency where she has spent most of her career, she kicked off that career in Detroit.

Cheatle applied to the Secret Service while still in college in Illinois, but was initially told to get her degree first, she said in a March 2021 episode of the Secret Service’s podcast, “Standing Post.”

She reapplied, went to work for a hotel chain’s security department and about 2.5 years later was hired by the Secret Service, she said. She started in 1995, her first field office assignment was Detroit and she worked here for about 4.5 years.

More: Secret Service director grilled on 'stunning' failures to protect Trump

Cheatle initially focused on the Secret Service’s other duty, aside from presidential protection: financial crime investigation, according to Illinois-based newspaper The News-Gazette. The paper interviewed Cheatle in 2023 ahead of a visit to her alma mater, Eastern Illinois University.

During her time working out of the Detroit office, Cheatle also provided protection when the president visited the Michigan area and in 1996 was charged with securing the train tracks from Ann Arbor to Michigan City, Indiana, for President Bill Clinton, the News-Gazette reported.

Cheatle eventually moved to Washington, D.C. and has confirmed she was on Vice President Dick Cheney’s detail when the country came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001. She was part of the effort to evacuate him from the White House.

She also served in numerous other offices and states in her decades-long career with the Secret Service, including in Grand Rapids as the resident agent in charge.

She protected President Joe Biden during his time as vice president and was assistant director of the Office of Protective Operation before retiring, for a short time, to run global security for PepsiCo. Biden appointed her to head the Secret Service in 2022.

Cheatle on Monday called the attempt on Trump’s life “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades” and said she “will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again.”

She fielded numerous questions on the timing of the Secret Service’s response to the shooting, roof coverage at the rally, diversity initiatives and more , and fielded ire at her responses and lack thereof.

Cheatle also seemingly signaled at the time that she wouldn't be going anywhere. She said she is "the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”

Biden, in a statement just two days after announcing his own plans to bow out of the presidential race, thanked Cheatle for her service and said she had "selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service."

Biden will appoint a new director soon and an independent review of the July 13 attack on Trump continues, he said. He wished Cheatle all the best.

"As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service," he said.

USA Today contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Recently resigned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle got start in Michigan