White House intruder went deep
The man made it much farther inside than was initially reported, before being tackled.
WASHINGTON - The intruder who climbed a fence made it farther inside the White House than the Secret Service has publicly acknowledged, a Republican congressman said Monday. The disclosures came on the eve of a congressional oversight hearing with the director of the embattled agency assigned to protect the president's life.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) said Monday night that whistleblowers told his committee that the intruder ran through the White House, into the East Room and near the doors to the Green Room before being apprehended. They also told the committee that the intruder made it past a female guard stationed inside the White House, Chaffetz said.
In the hours after the Sept. 19 fence-jumper incident, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told the Associated Press that the suspect had been apprehended just inside the North Portico doors of the White House. The Secret Service also said that night that the suspect had been unarmed - an assertion that was revealed to be false the next day when officials acknowledged Gonzalez had a knife with him when he was apprehended.
"I'm worried that over the last several years, security has gotten worse - not better," Chaffetz said.
He said his committee's request for a briefing from the Secret Service on the incident was denied.
It was not clear late Monday what Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had been told about the extent of the incident.
Senate Judiciary Committee staffers who were briefed about the investigation by the administration a week after the incident were never told that Gonzalez had made it deep into the building, said a congressional official who wasn't authorized to discuss the investigation and requested anonymity. The official said the committee later was told that the suspect had, indeed, made it far beyond the front door.
Citing multiple unnamed sources, the Washington Post reported that Gonzalez ran past the guard at the front door, past a staircase leading up to the Obamas' living quarters and into the East Room, which is about halfway across the first floor of the building. Gonzalez was eventually "tackled" by a counter-assault agent, the Post said.
The latest details were expected to dominate questioning by lawmakers on Tuesday of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. who was scheduled to testify before a House committee - her first testimony since the incident.