Third White House 'Gate-Crasher' Says He Was Invited

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2010— -- A third man alleged to have crashed the White House State Dinner in November now says he was invited to the party -- days after repeatedly denying that he was ever there.

Carlos Allen, first identified by the Washington Post and confirmed to ABC News by government sources, is the third suspect under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service for attending the Nov. 24 gala without an invitation.

But Allen's attorney, A. Scott Bolden, told ABC News his client received "what he believed to be an official invitation," adding the Secret Service "probably ought to be investigating themselves and the process and what occurred here."

Bolden refused to provide a copy of Allen's invitation to ABC News because he had not yet seen the original, saying he was still conducting his own investigation.

On Monday the U.S. Secret Service announced that it had identified a third uninvited guest, in addition to Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who breached security and masqueraded on White House grounds.

Video footage from the event shows Carlos Allen emerging from a van that carried Indian business leaders from a hotel to the White House. He then enters the White House through the front door, just minutes before the guest of honor, Indian Prime Minister Monmohan Singh, walked through the same entrance.

Sources tell ABC News the D.C.-area man met the Indian delegation at the Willard Hotel, where they went through a magnetometer security screening before boarding vans to the White House. It's unclear if Allen was ever asked to show identification.

Upon approaching the White House gate, Secret Service personnel then waved through the delegation's van, assuming everyone inside had been cleared and screened to attend.

"They clearly are not following their basic protocol in that you cannot let anyone in a controlled space, particularly with the president, without being cleared," former FBI special agent Brad Garrett told ABC News.

The Secret Service says that "there is nothing to indicate that this individual went through the receiving line" or had contact with the Obamas, unlike the Salahis, who famously shook hands with the president.

"The first breach flabbergasted me," Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., told ABC News. "Now we have another breach that tells me there are holes in security at the White House."