Secret Service Faces New Scrutiny After Agent Cheers Charlie Kirk’s Murder

The assassin remains at large, and the FBI is engaged in a desperate manhunt to apprehend the killer. Kirk, 31, was a prominent conservative influencer  close to President Trump, who credits Kirk and his organization for helping him make substantial inroads with young voters leading to his electoral victory last fall. 

Pough posted on Facebook: “if you are Mourning this guy .. [sic] delete me. He spewed hatred and racism on his show.” 

“Especially when we should be mourning the innocent children killed in Colorado,” Pough continued. “At the end of the day, you answer to GOD and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesn’t leave.”

Earlier this year, Pough, who is black, also posted several Facebook posts criticizing Trump for attempting to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives through the federal government. 

“DEI stops NEPOTISM,” Pough argued in one Facebook post. “That’s the problem they have, [sic] That’s the root issue.”

In another post, Pough took issue with Trump’s firing of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Biden and refused to resign after Trump was inaugurated for his second term. It’s customary for presidents to choose new military advisers, especially when the president representing a different party is elected.  

Pough took issue with the firing on his Facebook account, using angry and cursing emojis. 

“So you fired him because you don’t know if he was a “DEI” hire,” Pough wrote. “You assumed because he is BLACK he had to be. He is the chairman of the JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF [sic] and obviously you can only attain such a high class position based on MERIT.” 

“This is RACISM,” he added. 

In the letter to Curran, Blackburn blasted the agency, which she argued is in dire need of reform, and called for immediate action for what she called “inexcusable” conduct. 

“Put simply, your employee celebrated and attempted to justify a political assassination,” she wrote. “This conduct is inexcusable, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to immediately terminate his employment.”

By the time Blackburn had sent the letter, Curran had already placed Pough on administrative leave, a knowledgeable Secret Service source told RCP. Two sources also said the agency has plans to fire Pough but did not provide a timeline for when that would happen. 

Kirk’s murder has been denounced across the political spectrum with almost every prominent elected Democrat speaking out against the political violence. Within conservative circles – and especially within the Trump administration – these concerns have been heightened by a sense of personal tragedy for a young husband and father whom many called a close friend. Vice President JD Vance solemnly carried Kirk’s casket, along with other pallbearers, after Air Force 2, Vance’s official plane, transported Kirk’s body from Utah to Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday.

The outspoken MAGA influencer, who was famous for debating college students, encouraged political debate with political adversaries and this year appeared on California Gov. Newsom’s podcast, has plenty of detractors, many of whom have not reacted with solemnity, and in some cases have even celebrated his death on social media. 

After conservative influencers pointed out that several military personnel and Department of War civilians had posted derogatory remarks on social media about Kirk after his death, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a friend of Kirk’s, on Wednesday called such public comments “completely unacceptable.” 

“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately.” Hegseth posted on X.com. 

Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, on Thursday said he would use his congressional authority to pressure social media organizations to enforce their own rules about advocating or condoning violence. 

“I’m going to use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate [an] immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” Higgins wrote.

Many conservative commentators, including investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger, have pushed back against the notion pushed by some leftists that Kirk created the environment that killed him. 

“It’s a grotesque lie,” Shellenberger said in an X.post Thursday. “For 20+ years, Democrats dehumanized conservatives to the point that half the Left says Trump’s murder can be justified. Little wonder their condolences are falling on deaf ears.” 

Even before Blackburn issued her letter to Curran, which RCP first reported, the Secret Service said it wouldn’t tolerate one of its agents, whose job description is to protect political figures from assassination, endorsing Kirk’s killing.

“The U.S. Secret Service will not tolerate any behavior which violates our code of conduct,” a Secret Service spokesperson told RCP in a statement. “We are aware of the employee’s social media post from today, and the individual has been placed on administrative leave as we investigate the matter.” 

Before the Secret Service took action against the agent, his Facebook post about Kirk was circulating within the federal law enforcement community with some sources expressing concern that an agent, entrusted with protecting political figures and the U.S. continuity of government, would effectively celebrate an assassination of someone so close to Trump after the two assassination attempts last year against the now-president. 

“If that’s all it takes to set you off, that’s dangerous to have around,” one source in the Secret Service community told RCP. 

“I’m mostly concerned about the morals of a person sworn to protect the rights of others to engage in politics and exercise free speech, celebrating the death of someone exercising those same rights,” the source added. 

Pough, a relatively new agent, having graduated from training in 2022, is part of the agency’s Presidential Protective Division but is not on a detail regularly charged with protecting Trump. Yet, all agents, at times, could be called off their official duties to contribute to presidential coverage.

Blackburn, who was highly critical of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, asserted in her letter that the Secret Service has been an agency “full of political actors and in desperate need of reform.” 

She was one of several Republican senators who chastised Cheatle during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last year, after the former director refused to answer their questions about the agency’s failures in Butler. 

The Tennessee senator, who is running for governor, in her letter to Curran said those failures would “forever be a stain on the Secret Service.” The agent’s postings about Kirk, she argued, “makes clear that one year later bad actors must be rooted out of your agency.”

“President Trump and all Secret Service protectees deserve nothing less,” she said. 

“You noted in a statement earlier this year that you recognize ‘the importance of accountability’ at the Secret Service,” she added. “I implore you to abide by that statement and ensure that this employee never steps foot in Secret Service headquarters ever again.” 

For many in the agency, Pough’s posts were like déjà vu all over again. 

Just before Trump’s first election, in October 2016, Kerry O’Grady, a now-retired senior Secret Service agent suggested in a Facebook post just weeks before the 2016 election that she wouldn’t take a bullet for Trump. 

The Secret Service didn’t take any disciplinary action against O’Grady, who was serving as the boss of the Denver Field Office, for that social media post, even though it was well known throughout the agency she had written it with many agents deeply concerned about the leadership’s lack of response. 

After this reporter wrote a story about O’Grady’s post, the agency placed O’Grady on paid administrative leave for nearly two years to allow her to hit her retirement date. She left the agency in 2019 with full pension benefits.