The deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, Matt Quinn, resigned Friday in an internal email sent to the agency, with his last day set for November 7. The resignation comes as the agency faces pointed questions over whether it shot down one of its own drones last December during the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore, then presented the incident publicly as a successful counter-drone takedown.
The Army-Navy game, held in Baltimore, was attended by President Trump, Cabinet officials and members of Congress. Last Sunday, a 60 Minutes segment featured Quinn alongside Secret Service Director Sean Curran touting the agency’s counter-drone technology, including a demonstration of a system called DroneHunter. The program reported that the Secret Service used electronic jamming equipment to take down a drone during the Baltimore game.
Secret Service sources now say that drone belonged to the agency itself. According to reporting from Susan Crabtree at RealClearPolitics, a tactical unit had become “trigger happy” during the game and took out the drone without communicating with the team operating it. Agents reportedly celebrated the takedown before realizing they had shot down their own equipment in a “blue-on-blue” incident. The downed drone is said to have fallen on or near Interstate 395.
Quinn’s background adds another layer to the controversy. He originally retired from the Secret Service in 2021, then spent three years as a senior vice president at Fortem Technologies, the manufacturer of the DroneHunter system, before rejoining the Secret Service last year as deputy director. That prior role at Fortem was not disclosed during the 60 Minutes appearance.
Current and former agents have raised questions about whether Quinn recused himself from decisions on the agency’s purchases of Fortem’s technology. RealClearPolitics also reports the DroneHunter has had technical issues that have delayed or prevented its full rollout within the Secret Service.
The episode follows the communications breakdowns exposed after the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, which raised questions about whether the agency has fixed the failures that nearly cost the president his life.
