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Tag: Secret Service

  • US Secret Service Director Resigns Days After Assassination Attempt On Ex-President Trump | world news

    Washington: The director of the Secret Service said Tuesday she is resigning following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump that unleashed intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission.

    Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

    “I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in an email to staff, obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”

    Cheatle’s departure was unlikely to end the scrutiny of the long-troubled agency after the failures of July 13, and it comes at a critical juncture ahead of the Democratic National Convention and a busy presidential campaign season. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have promised continued investigation, along with an inspector general probe and an independent and bipartisan effort launched at President Joe Biden’s behest that will keep the agency in the spotlight.

    “The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” Cheatle said in her note to staff.

    Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after appearing before a congressional committee and was berated by hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades and said she took full responsibility for the security lapses, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.

    At the hearing Monday, Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she took responsibility the security failures. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, “No, thank you.”

    The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the July 13 rally.

    Cheatle acknowledged Monday that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the rally. She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. But she failed to answer many questions about what happened, including why there no agents stationed on the roof.

    A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, and agency snipers killed the shooter. Trump said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were critically wounded.

    “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” Cheatle told members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. “As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”

    Details continue to unfold about signs of trouble that day and what role both the Secret Service and local authorities played in security. The agency routinely relies on local law enforcement to secure the perimeter of events where people it is protecting appear. Former top Secret Service agents said the gunman should never have been allowed to gain access to the roof.

    Two days after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he supported Cheatle “100%.”

    But there were calls for accountability across the political spectrum, with congressional committees immediately moving to investigate, issuing a subpoena to testify and the top Republican leaders from both the House and the Senate saying she should step down. Biden, a Democrat, ordered an independent review into security at the rally, and the Secret Service’s inspector general opened an investigation. The agency is also reviewing its counter sniper team’s “preparedness and operations.”

    In an interview with ABC News two days after the shooting, Cheatle said she wasn’t resigning. She called the shooting “unacceptable” and something that no Secret Service agent wants to happen. She said her agency is responsible for the former president’s protection: “The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service.”

    Cheatle served in the Secret Service for 27 years. She left in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo before Biden asked her to return in 2022 to head the agency with a workforce of 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other staff.

    She took over amid a controversy over missing text messages from around the time thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following his 2020 election loss to Biden.

    During her time in the agency, Cheatle was the first woman to be named assistant director of protective operations, the division that provides protection to the president and other dignitaries, where she oversaw a $133.5 million budget. She is the second woman to lead the agency.

    When Biden announced Cheatle’s appointment, he said she had served on his detail when he was vice president and he and his wife “came to trust her judgment and counsel.”

  • Uncovered: Michelle Obama Persevered Racist Abuse


    In an “Insider” article, a former Secret Carrier agent went into element concerning the racism that Michelle Obama persisted as first woman.

  • Ex-DHS Aide Suggests She ‘Went Very Public’ As a result of She Did not Agree with Inspector Normal

    Olivia Troye, a former Division of Native land Safety and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, stated Friday there’s a explanation why she “went very public” about quitting her task in 2020 ― and advised present investigations into the lacking Secret Carrier textual content messages contain the similar individual.

    Troye seemed on CNN as a part of a panel along former CIA agent Phil Mudd and govt ethics knowledgeable Norm Eisen when she made those claims. Information anchor Jim Sciutto requested Troye why the lacking messages, which can be related to the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt, weren’t actively preserved.

    “It’s just a little unexpected,” stated Troye. “I’ve labored technical migrations within the govt, and I in finding it just a little bit complicated that folks weren’t mindful that those messages had been going to vanish, particularly with the volume of making plans that is going into those migrations. I will be able to inform you that firsthand having achieved it.”

    “I got here from DHS,” Troye instructed CNN. “Whilst you paintings on the senior ranges within the Trump management … you understand precisely the place folks’s loyalties lie. I do know [Ken] Cuccinelli and Chad Wolf and a majority of these folks and Cuffari rather well.” (Cuccinelli and Wolf had been the appearing leaders at DHS on the time.)

    Cuffari significantly waited a couple of yr to document that messages had been lacking to the Area Jan. 6 committee. Alternatively, he first realized of the messages in Would possibly 2021 — seven months earlier than alerting them, in keeping with CNN.

    Troye, who famously surrender the Trump management in 2020 over its missing COVID-19 pandemic reaction, then related that have to the DHS inspector common’s place of job ― which used to be led via Cuffari on the time.

    “There’s a explanation why that I went very public with my issues concerning the Trump management, slightly than going throughout the conventional whistleblower procedure, which might have led me throughout the inspector common’s place of job at DHS,” Troye stated Friday on CNN.

    “And I’ll simply say that. So, there’s a degree of believe there that you already know.”

    As for the lacking messages, the texts had been reputedly misplaced when the Secret Carrier switched units and migrated to a brand new inner knowledge gadget.

    A senior forensics analyst in Cuffari’s place of job had already ready to gather one of the vital related telephones when one of the most deputies who “report back to Cuffari’s staff” emailed investigators on Feb. 18 and urged them to not transfer ahead, resources instructed The Washington Submit.

    “I’ve were given to inform you, being a Trump admin individual, lots of the management communicated on encrypted sign apps, apps like Sign,” stated Troye. “So, numerous the days, those messages had been most likely disappearing. So … it’s just a little bit suspect.”

    The crucial texts could paint a clearer picture of the Trump administration's potential involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
    The an important texts may just paint a clearer image of the Trump management’s possible involvement within the Jan. 6 revolt.

    Brent Stirton by means of Getty Pictures

    Troye went on so as to add: “You’ll be able to both flip on your govt telephone ― used to be there an encrypted app on it? Was once it on their private telephone? Finally, it kind of feels those messages are long gone both means.”

    Mudd, a CNN counterterrorism analyst, referred to as the dealing with of the location “past incompetence.” Mudd joined the CIA in 1985 as an analyst focusing on the Center East and South Asia all the way through President Ronald Reagan’s management.

    “How can the inspector common pass to Congress now and say that you’ll be able to believe me to behavior ongoing investigations when there are those gaps of reporting to you? I believe the inspector common has to move,” Mudd stated.

    “What the heck used to be the manager knowledge officer at DHS doing?” Mudd added. “For those who’re migrating knowledge, the primary query you have got for any person who grew up with a handbook typewriter is, is that knowledge sponsored up? Now not simplest since you are intended to do this, however since the legislation says it’s a must to do this.”

    Eisen, a CNN prison analyst, went even additional in suggesting that the Justice Division is “surely” taking into consideration critical consequences for the ones doubtlessly concerned within the alleged negligence — or imaginable cover-up on behalf of the Trump management.

    “What number of coincidences are we going to have involving DHS and the Secret Carrier and those lacking messages at the maximum an important time period that our country has faced in many years?” Eisen requested.

    “I imply, it simply traces trust,” he added. “We don’t wish to prejudge, however [the] DOJ is surely taking a troublesome have a look at one of the vital federal consequences that may come with prison consequences if we discover that this used to be no longer an coincidence, that it used to be no longer negligence, that used to be no longer accident after accident — however one thing intentional used to be occurring right here.”

  • Trevor Noah Raises Eyebrows At Secret Carrier’s ‘Easiest’ Lacking Texts Excuse

    Trevor Noah is just a little skeptical of the U.S. Secret Carrier’s reason behind its lacking texts from Jan. 6, 2021.

    The rationale the Secret Carrier used to be not able to give you the subpoenaed information to the Area committee investigating the assault? The company mentioned the messages have been deleted as a part of a regimen and pre-planned device-replacement program.

    The Secret Carrier has denied maliciously erasing the messages following a request for the information.

    “Wow, that is so unhappy. The Secret Carrier misplaced all of the texts from January sixth as a result of they have been doing a ‘system alternative program.’ What an excellent ― I imply horrible ― factor,” Noah mentioned Tuesday on “The Day-to-day Display.” “Why do I think like this is identical more or less system alternative program you do when your spouse asks you to provide an explanation for the place you have been the opposite evening?”

    The Secret Carrier has confronted intensifying scrutiny after it mentioned it deliberate to dispute the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White Area leader of personnel Mark Meadows, who instructed Area investigators that Trump lunged on the steerage wheel of the presidential limo on Jan. 6 and demanded to be taken to the U.S. Capitol.

    Watch his roast under on “The Day-to-day Display”:

  • Nationwide Archives Calls For Investigation Into Deleted Jan. 6 Secret Provider Texts

    The Nationwide Archives is asking for an investigation into deleted textual content messages despatched by means of Secret Provider brokers on Jan. fifth and sixth, 2021, right through the violent rise up at the usCapitol.

    In a letter to the Division of Place of birth Safety Tuesday, the U.S. Govt’s leader information officer Laurence Brewer steered the Secret Provider to analyze the subject and decide if any textual content messages had been improperly deleted.

    The Secret Provider should now supply a report back to the Nationwide Archives and Information Management inside 30 days, together with an outline of the information, an accounting of the precise cases surrounding their deletion, main points of movements taken to salvage the information and what safeguards had been established to stop additional loss.

    Brewer emphasised that any unauthorized deletion represents a major subject, without reference to whether or not or no longer the texts themselves are related to the Congressional committee investigating the occasions of Jan. 6.

    The Secret Provider says the messages have been erased as a part of a regimen and pre-planned device-replacement program, however the timeline of the deletions has raised eyebrows.

    DHS Inspector Basic Joseph Cuffari instructed the Space committee investigating Jan. 6 that the texts have been deleted after his place of work asked the information as a part of a probe into the occasions, although the Secret Provider denies this.

    The information have taken on further significance following the bombshell testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson. Amongst different revelations, the aide to Trump White Space leader of workforce Mark Meadows instructed Space investigators that Trump “lunged” for the steerage wheel of the presidential limo on Jan. 6 as a way to be taken to the Capitol.

    Whilst the Secret Provider stated it deliberate to dispute her testimony, the company has but to officially achieve this just about 3 weeks later.

    Committee contributors additionally no doubt need to see Secret Provider communications in regards to the effort to stay more than a few politicians secure that day, no longer the least of whom is former vice chairman Mike Pence, who was once compelled into hiding as a mob screaming “dangle Mike Pence” compelled their manner into the development.

  • Males Accused Of Impersonating Federal Brokers May not Be Jailed

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal pass judgement on has denied the federal government’s request to detain two males accused of posing as federal Place of origin Safety brokers, tricking precise U.S. Secret Carrier officials and providing them unfastened presents and flats at a luxurious condominium construction in Washington.

    Federal prosecutors have argued the 2 males ― Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, ― had posed as faux brokers and providing the presents so that you can “ingratiate” themselves and combine with regulation enforcement brokers, together with a Secret Carrier agent assigned to offer protection to the primary woman.

    The boys had been arrested ultimate week when the FBI raided the construction in southwest Washington and feature been charged with impersonating federal officials. Prosecutors mentioned the brokers discovered frame armor, fuel mask, zip ties, handcuffs, apparatus to damage thru doorways, drones, radios and police coaching manuals throughout a seek of 5 flats within the construction.

    Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to paintings for the Division of Place of origin Safety and paintings on a different job drive investigating gangs and violence hooked up to the Jan. 6 rebellion on the U.S. Capitol.

    The affidavit to support the arrest of Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali is photographed Wednesday, April 6, 2022.
    The affidavit to improve the arrest of Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali is photographed Wednesday, April 6, 2022.

    Jon Elswick by the use of Related Press

    Taherzadeh is accused of offering Secret Carrier officials and brokers with rent-free flats — together with a penthouse value over $40,000 a yr — along side iPhones, surveillance programs, a drone, a tv, a generator, a gun case and different policing gear, in step with courtroom paperwork. In a single example, Taherzadeh introduced to buy a $2,000 attack rifle for a Secret Carrier agent who’s assigned to offer protection to the primary woman, prosecutors mentioned.

    “They tricked folks whose activity it’s to be suspicious of folks and to invite those questions,” prosecutor Josh Rothstein mentioned.

    Rothstein printed that the lads “inadvertently” discovered they had been beneath investigation when a Secret Carrier investigator had tipped them off, forcing the FBI to transport extra briefly than anticipated to arrest them.

    Prosecutors had alleged that Ali used to be a flight chance and that he had advised a witness within the case that he had ties to the Pakistani intelligence company, Inter-Products and services Intelligence, a declare the federal government later mentioned it hadn’t substantiated. The Pakistani embassy forcefully denied the statement, pronouncing it “categorically rejects this false declare.” That they had additionally raised his trip historical past, pronouncing he had visas from Pakistan and Iran.

    U.S. Justice of the Peace Pass judgement on Michael Harvey had intensely wondered prosecutors concerning the case in a listening to that spanned over 3 days. He in the end made up our minds on Tuesday that he would liberate the lads on Wednesday, subjecting them to supervision that comes with GPS tracking.

    Harvey agreed to stick his order till Wednesday morning whilst the federal government makes a decision whether or not to enchantment. The pass judgement on identified that the rate isn’t a violent crime and neither of the lads faces an important jail sentence, if they’re convicted. He mentioned there were “considerably worse and extra bad impersonation circumstances.”

    “However, I nonetheless to find that the federal government has enough proof right here to convict each the defendants of the crimes they’ve been charged with,” Harvey mentioned.

    The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Carrier started investigating an attack involving a mail provider on the condominium construction and the lads recognized themselves as being a part of a phony Place of origin Safety unit they referred to as the U.S. Particular Police Investigation Unit.

    The defendants had been tipped off on April 4 after the Secret Carrier started investigating 4 of its staff who had been placed on go away for allegedly accepting presents from the lads. As a part of that inside probe, a Secret Carrier investigator reached out and Taherzadeh spoke back, Rothstein mentioned in courtroom.

    Taherzadeh’s legal professional, Michelle Peterson, argued that he had no purpose of compromising the brokers and had equipped the posh flats and extravagant presents as a result of he sought after to be buddies with them.

    She mentioned her shopper had up to now been authorized in Washington as an unarmed particular police officer – a personal guard to offer protection to folks or belongings – and used to be additionally an authorized personal detective. In an in depth interview with investigators after his arrest, Taherzadeh she had made “an embarrassing misrepresentation that were given out of keep an eye on.”

    “When the one device you’ve got is a hammer, the entirety seems like a nail,” Peterson mentioned throughout one of the crucial hearings. “They have got jumped to the wildest conspiracy theories possible over essentially the most scant of proof.”

    The 2 males additionally had surveillance apparatus and a high-power telescope, prosecutors mentioned. The FBI discovered proof that they’ll were developing surveillance gadgets and likewise discovered a binder with data on all of the citizens within the luxurious condominium construction, which is house to regulation enforcement officials, protection officers and congressional staffers.

    Prosecutors say the lads had additionally arrange surveillance within the construction and were telling citizens there that they might get admission to any in their cell phones at any time. The citizens additionally advised investigators they believed the lads had get admission to to their private data.

    The FBI additionally discovered a number of firearms — together with handguns and ammunition — and disassembled rifle items and sniper scopes, Rothstein mentioned.

    Ali’s legal professional, Greg Smith, has argued his shopper didn’t know Taherzadeh used to be mendacity a couple of connection to Place of origin Safety and if truth be told believed he used to be running on behalf of the federal government. He mentioned his shopper is a naturalized U.S. citizen and has no skill to acquire a Pakistani passport.

  • Males Accused Of Impersonating DHS Officials ‘Now not Simply Taking part in Get dressed-Up’

    New main points have emerged in relation to two males who allegedly impersonated Place of origin Safety officials, duping their D.C. neighbors — together with a Secret Carrier agent who used to be assigned to offer protection to first woman Jill Biden.

    The lads, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, have been arrested previous this week. Their motivations stay unclear; prosecutors arguing for his or her pretrial detention advised the chance that they’d ties to international governments.

    Neither guy is hired through the US govt in any capability, court docket paperwork say. One, Taherzadeh, is barred from possessing firearms because of a previous home violence conviction; he pleaded in charge to making an attempt to strangle his spouse just about a decade in the past.

    But the pair have been reputedly referred to as Place of origin Safety officials to neighbors of their Washington, D.C., rental construction, the place they rented more than one gadgets and the place many citizens are affiliated with federal regulation enforcement and the army.

    Court docket paperwork filed previous within the week say that Taherzadeh used to be “very outspoken about his task” as a meant Place of origin Safety officer, in spite of his declare to be a part of a covert process drive.

    The lads allegedly recruited one person to “serve on their process drive,” telling the person he would want to be shot with an Airsoft rifle in order that Taherzadeh may evaluation his response and ache tolerance. The person instructed regulation enforcement Ali used to be additionally provide whilst he allowed himself to be shot.

    Prosecutors say Arian Taherzadeh posted photos to social media of himself in police garb, now deleted.
    Prosecutors say Arian Taherzadeh posted footage to social media of himself in police garb, now deleted.

    US District Court docket for the District of Columbia

    One neighbor, a Secret Carrier agent assigned to offer protection to the primary woman, stated Taherzadeh had “made it transparent that he’s the ‘go-to man’ if a resident wanted anything else within the construction.” Taherzadeh purchased that agent a $2,000 attack rifle, consistent with prosecutors.

    He and Ali are accused of lavishing presents on their neighbors, allegedly offering two Secret Carrier brokers with loose flats for round 12 months, permitting the spouse of a Secret Carrier agent to make use of what used to be supposedly an respectable govt car, and giving out iPhones and different electronics.

    The Secret Carrier positioned 4 brokers on administrative go away Monday.

    Government discovered that Taherzadeh and Ali had a Sig Sauer 229 and a Glock 19 ― firearms usually issued through federal regulation enforcement ― at the side of a number of firearm safes and firearm elements. They found out surveillance apparatus, 30 laborious drives and a system to create and program private identity verification playing cards, at the side of some clean playing cards with embedded chips.

    The 2 males have been “now not simply enjoying dress-up,” prosecutors stated in court docket paperwork filed Friday.

    Additionally in Taherzadeh’s ownership used to be “a rifle scope, tactical equipment and garage apparatus, clothes and patches with police insignias, hand held radios, a high-end drone, a fuel masks, handcuffs, zip ties, breaching apparatus, a cleansing equipment for firearms, an ultraviolet flashlight, an RF-GS k18 which is used to find hidden cameras, microphones and RF transmitters (e.g. car trackers), laptop server with two modules, an encrypted moveable laborious power, antennas, and a firearms holster fastened and hidden below a table.”

    Some of the police paraphernalia found in the possession of 40-year-old Arian Taherzadeh.
    One of the crucial police paraphernalia discovered within the ownership of 40-year-old Arian Taherzadeh.

    US District Court docket for the District of Columbia

    Taherzadeh instructed regulation enforcement that Ali funded maximum in their operations, however that he didn’t know the place the cash got here from, court docket paperwork say. Taherzadeh’s non-public safety corporate, referred to as “U.S. Particular Police LLC,” allegedly used trade playing cards allegedly formatted “very in a similar way” to Secret Carrier trade playing cards.

    In line with prosecutors, an expired passport Ali nonetheless had in his ownership indicated he’d visited Iran, Pakistan and Egypt, and he allegedly claimed he had ties to Pakistan’s intelligence provider ― one thing that has now not been corroborated.

    Taherzadeh and Ali’s alleged actions best got here to mild on account of an it appears unrelated attack on a United States Postal Carrier employee of their rental construction. A few of their neighbors instructed investigators that the 2 labored for Place of origin Safety, sparking an investigation that the FBI in the end took over.

  • 2 Males Charged For Posing As Feds, Giving Lavish Presents To Secret Provider Brokers

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged two males they are saying had been posing as federal brokers, giving unfastened flats and different presents to U.S. Secret Provider brokers, together with one that labored at the first woman’s safety element.

    The 2 males — Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 — had been taken into custody as greater than a dozen FBI brokers charged right into a luxurious rental construction in Southeast Washington on Wednesday night.

    Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to paintings for the Division of Hometown Safety and paintings on a different process pressure investigating gang and violence hooked up to the Jan. 6 revolt on the U.S. Capitol. They allege the 2 posed as regulation enforcement officials to combine with exact federal brokers.

    Taherzadeh is accused of offering Secret Provider officials and brokers with rent-free flats — together with a penthouse price over $40,000 a 12 months — together with iPhones, surveillance techniques, a drone, flat display tv, a generator, gun case and different policing equipment, in line with courtroom paperwork.

    He additionally presented to allow them to use a black GMC SUV that he known as an “respectable govt automobile,” prosecutors say. In a single example, Taherzadeh presented to buy a $2,000 attack rifle for a Secret Provider agent who’s assigned to give protection to the primary woman.

    Prosecutors stated 4 Secret Provider staff had been put on depart previous this week as a part of the investigation.

    The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Provider started investigating an attack on a mail service on the rental construction and the boys known themselves as being a part of a phony Hometown Safety unit they referred to as the U.S. Particular Police Investigation Unit.

    Prosecutors say the boys had additionally arrange surveillance within the construction and have been telling citizens there that they might get entry to any in their cell phones at any time. The citizens additionally instructed investigators they believed the boys had get entry to to their private knowledge.

    Taherzadeh and Ali are scheduled to seem in courtroom on Thursday. It used to be now not instantly transparent if they’d attorneys who may remark at the allegations.

    Prosecutors stated the investigation stays ongoing.