In a major leadership shakeup, Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn is out after 18 months on the job.
At the request of Secret Service Director Sean Curran, Matt Quinn came out of retirement and returned to the agency in May 2025.
However, on Friday, Quinn announced his decision to depart.
Read what he had to say on X here:
Today I informed the men and women of the @SecretService that I will be transitioning out of my role as Deputy Director. Director Curran and I have been working on a thoughtful transition plan for months now. Proud of the men & women of the USSS and all your accomplishments!
— U.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn (@SecretSvcDepDir) October 16, 2026
Quinn had previously retired from the Secret Service in 2021 after a 23 years long career in the agency.
NewsNation was the first to report on Quinn’s resignation:
“I also told the Director last year that one of my goals was to work myself out of this job as quickly as possible,” Quinn wrote.
“No timeline, just the right time, and I believe that time is now. Part of that calculus is for personal reasons, but most of all it is knowing that the Secret Service is well-positioned for the future.”
Quinn said he is most proud of transforming the agency’s leadership team and increasing law enforcement staffing during his tenure.
The Secret Service recorded a net gain of 929 law enforcement personnel this year, compared with 87 last year — a 722% increase — according to Quinn.
You can read his full resignation letter here:
In case that’s difficult to read, here’s the full text in a larger font:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE
Washington, D.C. 20223
Deputy Director
October 16, 2026
Men and Women of the Secret Service,
I’m writing to share that I will be stepping down as Deputy Director effective November 7, 2026.
This was not an easy decision. The last 18 months have been among the most rewarding of my career, both inside and outside the Secret Service. When Director Curran and I first sat down in April 2025 to consider the Deputy role, I came prepared with several topics that I considered deal breakers if we were not aligned. What I quickly learned was that we were not only aligned, but that his vision for the Secret Service took my expectations to another level.
Operations, Human Capital, Resources and Physical Assets, Training, and Technology are simple words on a strategic plan unless you execute them. Progress requires focus, follow-through, and the willingness to make things happen. I hope each of you can look at those areas and recognize the progress we have made, and continue to make, because of your dedication and support.
Whether it is making the field whole again by rightsizing the organization, building new programs, deploying new capabilities, providing resiliency tents and food for personnel at major events (who would have ever thought!), or simply being able to finally use earbuds on work phones – progress is being made. Much of that progress comes directly from your ideas and feedback. The men and women of the Secret Service are, and always will be, our greatest resource.
As many of you know, I initially retired from the Secret Service in 2021 as a Deputy Assistant Director in OPO. For me, returning to the Service was never intended to be a long-term second career, rather an opportunity to support Director Curran and the agency to make rapid, effective change across the organization. One thing you will not hear at headquarters today is, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” What you will hear is, “Why not?” and “Let’s figure out a way to make it happen.”
I also told the Director last year that one of my goals was to work myself out of this job as quickly as possible. No timeline, just the right time and I believe that time is now. Part of that calculus is for personal reasons but most of all it is knowing that the Secret Service is well-positioned for the future.
The Secret Service has a long history of promoting from within, and I strongly believe that legacy is a positive one for the organization. I wanted to help ensure that the Secret Service would never feel the need to look outside the organization to fill the Deputy Director role again. I know we have accomplished that goal.
We have built a front office team at all levels that includes leadership with deep protection, field, and training experience; business professionals committed to long-term operational and financial health; administration professionals focused on fixing aging problems, building modern facilities, and taking care of our people; a CIO and TEC team that never again wants to be labeled as providing “yesterday’s technology – tomorrow”; and a CHCO and HUM team that has taken on and succeeded in doing what no one thought possible – nearly 1,000 new LE personnel in FY26.
Everyone in a senior leadership role today has a deep respect for each of you and the challenges you face every day.
One of our renewed tenets for promotion is simple: right person, right place, right time. This now applies to all ranks, but it is especially important among the Senior Executive Service, whose members shoulder the responsibility of ensuring you, the men and women of the Secret Service, have the tools, resources, and leadership needed to succeed. The prior tenants of “next in line” or “most moved,” in lieu of “most capable,” are a thing of the past.
I share this with confidence because we now have a deep bench of remarkably capable SES personnel who are willing and able to continue the progress toward making the Secret Service the greatest law enforcement profession in the world.
The years ahead will be challenging. This job, across every job series, is not easy, and it never will be. But the sacrifice does not need to be as great as it has been. Believe me when I tell you: help is on the way.
The significant growth ahead will require a lot from our seasoned personnel. Your leadership and guidance have never been more important. I hope you take that responsibility seriously and help build up our growing workforce to take on the challenges you have handled so expertly for so long.
Most of all, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your 24th Deputy Director. I am in awe of your selfless service and commitment to our mission and our nation.
I also want to thank the entire headquarters front office team. It has not always been easy, but as the saying goes, if it were easy, it would be crowded. Thank you for your willingness to think outside the box, take chances, and help move this organization forward.
Finally, thank you Director Curran, Chief of Staff McQuiston, COO Toms, and my longtime friend and colleague, Chief Macauley. No one could ask for a better sounding board. I am immensely grateful for your trust in me, your leadership, your guidance, and, at times, your much-needed reality checks.
I wish each of you, and this agency, the greatest success and career fulfillment. I will soon be pulling for you from the sidelines.
Never forget Jerry Parr’s Words of Wisdom from September 13, 1973: “You’re engaged in a very deadly game, the stakes are high, and you can’t put a price on what you do.”
Team, the stakes have never been higher. Stay safe, look out for each other, and continue pushing the limits of what is possible.
With maximum respect,
Matthew C. Quinn
Quinn’s resignation announcement comes just days after an interview with him and Director Curran aired on CBS News’ 60 Minutes program.
Part of the interview included a demonstration of DroneHunter — a controversial drone interception system developed by Fortem Technologies, which Quinn worked for prior to re-joining the Secret Service.
Real Clear Politics has the scoop on that:
Quinn served 23 years as a Secret Service agent before retiring in 2021. He then went to work at drone-manufacturer Fortem Technologies, which sells the DroneHunter product, as a senior vice president for three years before returning to the agency last year to serve as deputy director. His last day will be Nov. 7.
As RealClearPolitics first reported, Quinn was criticized by several current and former Secret Service agents for admitting during a mostly softball Sunday CBS News “60 Minutes” interview that the Secret Service was not prepared for an attack by a drone swarm.
The piece featured a DroneHunter demonstration without mentioning several technical problems the platform has experienced. RealClearPolitics over the last 48 hours submitted detailed questions to the Secret Service about some of the statements made during the “60 Minutes” interview about the drone technology, its effectiveness, whether the DroneHunter’s purchases were competitively bid, and the agency’s track record in taking out drones.
The “60 Minutes” report did not mention Quinn’s prior work for Fortem. The Secret Service did not respond to RCP’s questions.
Even before Quinn’s announced departure, several Secret Service sources were questioning a report in a recent CBS “60 Minutes” segment that the agency used electronic jamming equipment to take down a drone at the Army-Navy game in Baltimore last December. The game was attended by the president and several members of Congress.
The sources suggest that the Secret Service is not providing the proper context about the downed drone, while raising concerns that it was most likely a friendly-fire incident.
CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell sat down with Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Quinn in a joint interview that aired Sunday night, Oct. 11. The three discussed this year’s surge in threats to President Trump and his Cabinet and how the agency is trying to adapt to dangers posed by autonomous attack drones, not just lone gunmen.
The 13-minute report features scenes of Curran and Quinn at the agency’s Rowley Training Center demonstrating counter-drone systems. The segment featured drone-fighting technology, including the DroneHunter, a weapon that uses AI and radar to disable what O’Donnell referred to as “enemy drones.” When it’s working properly, the DroneHunter captures targeted unmanned aerial vehicles in a net.
At one point, Quinn, who concedes during the interview that the agency doesn’t have the capability to stop a swarm of drones, narrates as a DroneHunter hexacopter captures an unmanned aerial vehicle in a training demonstration.
“Whoa,” O’Donnell remarks while watching the capture starting to take place.
“What you see is the drone hanging from the drone hunter,” Quinn explains. “So, the bad guy drone is now captured. It’s gonna take it to a predetermined safe area.”
Near the end of the segment, O’Donnell states without citing a source: “60 Minutes has learned the Secret Service took down a drone using electronic jamming equipment at the Army-Navy game in Baltimore last December where the president and members of Congress were in attendance.”
It was just one line in the segment, and there was no explanation of whether the drone posed a genuine threat to Trump and everyone else gathered in the stadium for the annual military academy football rivalry. The report also didn’t indicate whether the drone was associated with a foreign actor or was simply a hobbyist’s drone that posed no threat at all.
Active and retired Secret Service agents are now calling on agency leaders to explain more fully what happened. Their biggest question is whether it was a case of friendly fire. Instead of intercepting an alien drone that may or may not have posed a threat, a Secret Service officer or agent used a handheld drone-jamming gun to disable and take out one of its own surveillance drones monitoring the stadium, the sources tell RealClearPolitics.
A Secret Service source said the Specialized Rifle Unit, a tactical element within the Secret Service’s Uniformed Division, got “trigger happy” and took out an agency surveillance drone without communicating with others to find out whether it was an agency asset.
“SRU was, to my knowledge, the drone hunter team, and [they] failed to deconflict,” the source told RealClearPolitics. The SRU officers were celebrating until they realized it was a “blue-on-blue” incident, the source added.
Two sources told RCP that the downed Secret Service drone fell either onto or just to the side of Interstate 395, where the agency recovered it. Several sources also said the DroneHunter failed to operate as planned on the day O’Donnell was scheduled to appear at the training center for the demonstration. Since Quinn returned to the Secret Service, several agents have questioned whether he should have recused himself from any decisions on DroneHunter purchases because of his ties to the manufacturer.
The Secret Service didn’t respond to a set of emailed questions RCP posed about the Army-Navy game drone downing.
Such a friendly-fire incident would not be the first time this year that a federal law enforcement agency was involved in shooting down a U.S. government drone.
The U.S. military accidentally shot down a U.S. Customs and Border Protection drone using a high-energy anti-drone laser system near Fort Hancock, Texas, in February. Reports on the incident said the CBP didn’t coordinate the flight with the military task force assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Still, the agency’s silence around the Army-Navy incident is once again stoking internal agency concern that Secret Service leaders have yet to fix all siloed communications between agency assets that are supposed to be working in tandem to protect President Trump.
In a post on X, Susan Crabtree from Real Clear Politics shared a clip from the recent 60 Minutes interview and discussed the controversies further:
@RCPolitics EXCLUSIVE: FULL STORY behind the resignation of the Secret Service’s No. 2 today — Deputy Director Matt Quinn — among a series of drone controversies.
Did the Secret Service shoot down its own drone over the Army-Navy football game last year in a… pic.twitter.com/lNraKf0EFF
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) October 16, 2026
@RCPolitics EXCLUSIVE: FULL STORY behind the resignation of the Secret Service’s No. 2 today — Deputy Director Matt Quinn — among a series of drone controversies.
Did the Secret Service shoot down its own drone over the Army-Navy football game last year in a friendly-fire incident, then try to sell it to 60 Minutes as a win?
Secret Service sources want answers and tell RCP an agent or officer took out the agency’s own drone, which then fell on or near I-395.
Quinn, a longtime veteran of the Secret Service, also worked for Fortem Technologies, which manufactures the DroneHunter, before returning as deputy director last year.
The DroneHunter is known to have several technical issues, which have prevented or delayed its full implementation by the Secret Service.
What role did Quinn play in the agency’s purchasing decisions regarding the DroneHunter?
What do you think?
Do you believe there was a conflict of interest?
Did Matt Quinn make the right call by resigning?
Continue reading...
[ H/T WLT Report ]
