Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will no longer face a $7 million lawsuit since she resigned from the role.
Two people investigated for alleged fraud, Boris Zavadovsky and Elena Dvoinik, named the director in a lawsuit filed July 11, three days before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump which ultimately led to Cheatle standing down on July 23.
The suit, obtained by Newsweek, targets the Secret Service, its director, the Austrian police and others for defamation and invasion of privacy among other causes of action, as part of their long-running legal action against the U.S. and Austrian governments. Zavadovsky was allegedly a U.S. government employee at the time.
But after resigning from the role, Cheatle’s name is likely to be replaced by her successor, who the White House has said will be appointed soon.
New York attorney Colleen Kerwick told Newsweek: “Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25 governs substitution of parties. In particular, Rule 25(c) provides: ‘Transfer of Interest. In case of any transfer of interest, the action may be continued by or against the original party, unless the court upon motion directs the person to whom the interest is transferred to be substituted in the action or joined with the original party.’”
Kerwick added that, from past case law, it was likely that Cheatle would simply be replaced and would not be joined in the case.
Several lawsuits taken by Zavadovsky and Dvoinik, based on the same set of facts, have already been dismissed in the U.S. courts.
The latest filing in the case includes a redacted 2021 email with the subject of the ‘USSS [United States Secret Service] and Beacon Hotel’. The email is listed as being the property of the Secret Service. In it, one person discussed Boris Zavadovsky’s alleged forged hotel receipt from 2006. The person writing the email writes to another person to agree that the receipt is a poor-quality forgery that Zavadovsky allegedly forged on Microsoft Word.
The claim that contacts made by the Secret Service to hotels and others in America “were made by the United States Secret Service at the request of the Austrian police.”
The pair claim that the Secret Service and other U.S agencies contacted hotels and other U.S companies “under the premise that they were ‘conduct[ing] criminal investigations in the United States against ‘criminals and swindlers Elena Dvoinik and Boris Zavadovsky.’”
They allegedly sought confirmation that the two plaintiffs “forged receipts, certificates, and other official documents in order to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, insurance companies, and Plaintiff Zavadovsky’s employer, ‘the U.S. Government.’
Some of these invoices, receipts, and certificates appear to have been discovered during a search.
The Secret Service was contacted for comment via email on Tuesday. Newsweek also reached out to the lawyers for Zavadovsky and Dvoinik via email on Tuesday.
Cheatle resigned on Tuesday after the Secret Service was accused of failing to prevent an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
She announced her resignation in an email sent to staff, the AP reported. Cheatle has served in her position since August 2022.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse. In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director,” she said in the letter, according to the AP.
Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee on Monday about the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. During the four-hour hearing, the bi-partisan committee asked Cheatle about how gunman Matthew Thomas Crooks was able to fire shots at the rally, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one other rallygoer. The agency’s handling of the shooting has sparked backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.
Cheatle faced widespread criticism following her testimony on Monday, with lawmakers questioning her about the agency’s failure to prevent the shooting.
Uncommon Knowledge
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