WASHINGTON — A security contractor with a gun and three prior convictions for assault and battery was allowed on an elevator with President Barack Obama during a Sept. 16 trip to Atlanta, violating Secret Service protocols, the Washington Post reported, citing three people familiar with the incident.
Obama was not told of the lapse in his security, these people said. Secret Service director Julia Pierson asked a top agency manager to review the matter, but did not refer it to an investigative unit that was created to review violations of protocol and standards, the Post reported, citing two people familiar with the handling of the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The incident, which took place as Obama visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to discuss the U.S. response to the Ebola crisis, rattled Secret Service agents assigned to the president's protective detail.
The private contractor first aroused the agents' concerns when he was acting oddly and did not comply with their orders that he stop using a phone camera to videotape the president in the elevator, according to the people familiar with the incident.
When the elevator opened, Obama left with most of his Secret Service detail. Some agents stayed behind to question the man, and then used a national database check to learn of his criminal history.
When a supervisor from the firm providing security at the CDC approached and discovered the agents' concerns, the contractor was fired on the spot. Then the contractor agreed to turn over his gun — surprising agents, who had not realized he was armed during his encounter with Obama.
Extensive screening is supposed to keep people with either weapons or criminal histories out of arm's reach of the president. But it appears this man, possessing a gun, came within inches of the president after undergoing no such screening.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who heads a House subcommittee that oversees the Secret Service, first heard of the breakdown from a whistleblower. The Post confirmed details of the event with other people familiar with the agency's review.
"You have a convicted felon within arm's reach of the president and they never did a background check," Chaffetz said. "Words aren't strong enough for the outrage I feel for the safety of the president and his family. "
Chaffetz added: "His life was in danger. This country would be a different world today if he had pulled out his gun."
A Secret Service official, speaking on behalf of the agency, said there is an ongoing investigation into the details of the incident. The official declined to provide a public comment, citing the pending review.
A White House spokesman declined to comment on the incident, or say when, or if, the president had been informed of it.
In response to a question at the hearing Tuesday, Pierson said she briefs the president "100 percent of the time" when his personal security has been breached. However, she said that has only happened one time this year: just days after Omar Gonzalez jumped over the White House fence Sept. 19 and was able to burst into the mansion.
The lapse in Atlanta is the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Secret Service. Some elements of the incident were first reported Tuesday afternoon on the Washington Examiner's website.
Pierson drew criticism Tuesday from lawmakers in both parties during a combative House hearing on her agency's security lapses. The session focused on the agency's fumbled responses to a White House fence jumper last month who was able to sprint deep into the mansion and a 2011 shooting attack on the residence.
The fence breach on Sept. 19 came three days after Obama's trip to Atlanta.
Members of Congress briefed earlier by the agency apparently weren't told of the full extent of the breaches. And the Secret Service wrongly told the Associated Press that the intruder Sept. 19 was not armed.
Details emerged only later: The intruder ran through the White House and into the East Room, which is often used for presidential news conferences, speeches, ceremonies and dinners, before being apprehended. This, after he made it past a guard stationed inside the front door.
On his way, the intruder would have passed the staircase that leads up to the first family's residence. It was unclear what additional security might have been in place to prevent Gonzalez from attempting to go up if the family at been in the mansion.
Pierson asserted in the hearing: "The president is safe today."
But members of Congress were not assuaged by Pierson's vow that "I'll make sure that it does not happen again" or by the agency's own investigation.
"I wish to God you protected the White House like you protected your reputation here today," Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch told Pierson at a public hearing that was followed by a classified, closed-door briefing.
Chaffetz said afterward: "The more I learn, the more it scares me."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
New Secret Service lapse rattles nerves 09/30/14 [Last modified: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:46pm]
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