US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned as head of the agency following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
She has faced calls for her resignation from both Democrats and Republicans following a contentious House committee hearing on Monday into the affair.
Lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated as she refused to answer questions about the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
“As director, I take full responsibility for this security lapse,” she said in a resignation letter sent to all agency employees on Tuesday.
Ms Cheatle said she had always “put the needs of the agency first” and was “deeply saddened” by the decision.
“Monitoring has been intense over the past week and will continue as our operational tempo increases,” she said in the letter.
“I do not want my call for resignation to distract from the tremendous work each of you is doing for our important mission.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was grateful to her for her decades of public service.
“The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on 13 July is continuing, and I look forward to hearing the review’s conclusions. We all know that what happened that day can never happen again,” he said.
Mr. Biden said he would soon appoint a new director.
The president appointed Ms. Cheatle to head the Secret Service — which oversees the protection of current and former presidents and other officials — in 2022. She previously served 27 years at the agency in various roles.
During her time as a spy, Cheatle participated in the evacuation of Vice President Dick Cheney from the White House during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
She then became supervisor of Mr. Biden’s protective team when he was vice president, before becoming deputy assistant director of protective operations.
But her leadership was called into question after the shooting at a Trump rally on July 13, when a bullet grazed the former president’s ear.
He appeared several times at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee the following week with his wound bandaged.
The attack left one spectator dead and two others seriously injured.
Lawmakers grilled Cheatle about campaign security preparations during a tense six-hour House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday.
Ms Cheatle accepted responsibility for security failures, but resisted calls for her resignation.
She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man – suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building at the protest minutes before gunfire erupted.
Crooks was killed by a counterattacking sniper shortly afterwards.
Security and law enforcement officers from various agencies were present at the protest.
In her testimony, Cheatle did not provide lawmakers with any new information about how Crooks was able to gain access to the roof where he was perched and why Trump was allowed on stage.
After the hearing, the committee’s top Republicans and Democrats — James Comer and Jamie Raskin — sent a letter to Ms. Cheatle stating their view that she should resign.
Mr Comer said Ms Cheatle “failed to inspire confidence” during the hearing that she could fulfill the Secret Service’s protective duties.
“The Oversight Committee hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and further accountability to come,” he said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
In a post on his social media platform on Tuesday, Trump said: “The Biden/Harris Administration did not protect me properly, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called her resignation “long overdue” and said he was “glad she did the right thing.”
“Now we have to deal with the consequences, we have to rebuild the American people’s trust in the Secret Service,” he told reporters.
Teresa Wilson, a former marine who attended the protest, told the BBC she was “very happy” [Ms Cheatle] succumbed to pressure”.
“I hope they continue to conduct the independent investigation after she resigns. We want answers,” she said.
