Tonight, NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reported that former U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has become U.S. Secret Service protectee Kimberly Cheatle. That’s because Cheatle, who resigned from her post on July 23, has become the target of unspecified, but presumably credible and significant, threats in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the Secret Service’s failure to prevent it.
As shocking as it is to see a former Secret Service director need the protection of her own former agency, it’s much less surprising when one considers the overall threat environment.
But as shocking as it is to see a former Secret Service director need the protection of her own former agency, it’s much less surprising when one considers the overall threat environment facing those whom Trump loyalists perceive as a danger to him — or them. After all, we learned earlier this week that the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s New York hush money trial, and her business partner have each been subjected to death threats and harassment, and that law enforcement has advised the daughter and her family to leave their home for their own safety.
Further, in an interview with my NBC News colleague Ken Dilanian last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland noted that the Justice Department has brought 400 cases over the last two years alone dealing with threats against federal and state judges, federal and state prosecutors, federal and state legislators, and federal, state and local law enforcement officers. Of course, those are just the cases federal law enforcement has brought, not the totality of the threats.
And several of those cases concern targeted people who, simply for doing their jobs, have raised Trump supporters’ ire. They become part of the online stew of conspiracy theories, misogyny, white supremacy and MAGA devotion that can catalyze grievances into threats — or worse. Take Spencer Gear, a 32-year-old Nevada man indicted last month. The Justice Department alleges that from November 2023 through July 2024, Gear made threats to injure or kill 11 federal or state officials, including five federal judges in Washington, D.C., and Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over both of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trials against Trump. According to that indictment, Gear also directed threats, via a June 3 voicemail, at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the 34-count felony hush money case against Trump, as well as against Merchan.
To be fair, neither the fact of Gear’s indictment nor the identities of his alleged targets is new. But the transcript of Gear’s bail hearing, which MSNBC has obtained, includes the government’s description of how resolute, methodical and unafraid those making the threats can be, even when warned by federal law enforcement, as officials say Gear was, that the types of messages he had been leaving for officials were not protected by the First Amendment.
Prosecutors say Gear left a voicemail message at Bragg’s Harlem office in which he claimed, ‘We’re at war now.’ According to that transcript, prosecutors say days after a Manhattan jury returned its verdict in the hush money case, Gear left a voicemail message at Bragg’s Harlem office in which he claimed, “We’re at war now,” and then, referencing Bragg and Merchan, warned, “You’re dead men, we’re going to kill you … we’re going to round you up, and we’re going to put you before our own court, and then we’re going to f—ing execute you.” Prosecutors played that voicemail for the court in arguing that Gear should not be free pending trial. Gear was equally bold even when the FBI came to arrest him, authorities say, initially refusing to leave his house and cutting his hand while throwing back a drone the agency flew into the house. By the time FBI was able to conduct a search, agents found not only “multiple firearms throughout the house,” but also a “tactical vest that had a significant amount of ammunition on it” and “fresh blood — as if he had been handling that tactical vest.” And although he left his home without violence, he told the FBI, “You can smile today because I chose a different path. You’re not the enemy, but you work for them. This organization is not constitutional. I hope you guys understand that.” We obviously don’t — and likely won’t — know the nature of the threats to Cheatle. But if even one of the people making those threats is as unrepentant and potentially prepared as authorities say Spencer Gear was, her rapid transformation from political appointee to guardee is perfectly understandable.
Lisa Rubin is MS NOW's senior legal reporter and a former litigator.
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