Security Breach: Third White House Gate-Crasher Found
Third State Dinner crasher who breached White House security discovered.
Jan. 4, 2010— -- The United States Secret Service has discovered a third gate-crasher got into the November, 2009, White House state dinner that honored Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- a dinner perhaps best known for the allegedly gate-crashing Salahis.
"The Secret Service's investigation into the security events surrounding the Indian State Dinner on November 24, 2009, has revealed that a third individual, who was not on the White House guest list, entered the state dinner," a statement from the U.S. Secret Service reads.
The Secret Service says that as of right now "there is nothing to indicate that this individual went through the receiving line" or had contact with President and First Lady Obama. Unlike the Salahis, who famously shook hands with the president.
Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he would not provide the name of the individual in question.
While Secret Service officials assumed full blame for the presence at that dinner of the now-infamous Tareq and Michaele Salahi, they are blaming the presence of this third gate-crasher on the U.S. State Department.
"A State protocol officer should have prevented him from going through the U.S.S.S. security check at the Willard, U.S.S.S. has no list at that checkpoint," a U.S. official told ABC News.
"Once he was screened, he was part of the delegation package and went in with them," the official said, meaning there was no additional screening once the van arrived at the White House because they are then considered a secure package.
The official tells ABC News that after news broke of the Salahis crashing the State Dinner, the Secret Service reexamined video of guests arriving, trying to match faces with names on a guest list. Indeed, they found one man in a tuxedo, but no corresponding name on a guest list.
The third crasher was then quickly identified and later questioned, according to the official.
The Secret Service statement says that the "subject traveled from a local hotel, where the official Indian delegation was staying, and arrived at the dinner with the group, which was under the responsibility of the Department of State. This individual went through all required security measures along with the rest of the official delegation at the hotel, and boarded a bus/van with the delegation guests en route to the White House."
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