Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn to Leave Agency on November 7

WASHINGTON. Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of the United States Secret Service, announced on Friday that he will leave the agency on November 7. He posted the news publicly and shared a letter with staff the same day, saying he and Director Sean Curran had been working on a transition plan for months.

Quinn is the agency's second in command. His exit comes while the Secret Service works through a hard stretch: threats against the people it protects are up sharply, and its past failures are still under a spotlight.

A return that lasted about 18 months

Quinn first retired from the Secret Service in 2021, after 23 years with the agency. He then spent three years as a senior vice president at Fortem Technologies, a company that makes counter drone systems, before Curran asked him to come back.

He returned in May 2025 as deputy director. In his letter to staff, reported by several outlets, he said one of his goals from the start was to work himself out of the job, and that the time had come. He also pointed to family reasons. The Hill, citing its broadcast partner NewsNation, reported that he said he was leaving to spend more time with his family.

In the same letter, Quinn pointed to changes he was proud of, including work on the agency's leadership team and a sharp rise in hiring. He put the net gain in law enforcement staff at 929 people this year, against 87 the year before.

Threats are up, and drones are a worry

On Sunday, Curran and Quinn appeared together on the CBS program 60 Minutes. Curran said threats against the agency's full time protectees had risen more than 40 percent from the year before, and that about 10,000 threat cases had been opened since January.

Quinn used his part of the interview to talk about drones. He said coordinated drone swarms are a serious problem and a big threat for the agency, including around sites such as the White House. That interview also drew questions he did not answer on air. His years at Fortem, whose DroneHunter system the agency uses, were not disclosed in the segment, and current and former agents have asked whether he stepped back from decisions about buying the company's technology. Reporting so far has not shown that those questions caused his exit.

The failures behind the scrutiny

The agency is still answering for July 2024, when a gunman at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania wounded Donald Trump, killed one attendee and hurt two others. A Homeland Security inspector general report dated July 1, 2026 found that the Secret Service missed several chances to spot and stop that attack, with problems in communication, intelligence sharing and planning.

Trump also survived an attempt at his Florida golf course in September 2024. In April 2026, a gunman got through the security perimeter at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, and Trump and other senior officials were evacuated.

The agency has spent the time since building its counter drone work, studying lessons from the war in Ukraine and adding staff. Quinn's letter says the service is well placed for what comes next. His last day is November 7, and the agency has not yet named who takes the deputy director job after him.