3 Secret Service agents on leave over party crashers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Secret Service officers have been put on administrative leave after the security breach at last week’s White House dinner, an episode President Barack Obama said hasn’t shaken his confidence in his protectors.

The president nevertheless acknowledged Thursday that “the system didn’t work the way it was supposed to.”

Despite the screw-up, the president was never at risk, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told Congress on Thursday.

“Pure and simple, this was human error” in which normal security protocols were not followed, Sullivan testified. So far, the service’s continuing investigation has found three people from the agency’s uniformed officer division responsible for the security breach, and all three have been taken off duty until a review of the matter is completed, he added.

Sullivan had said early on that it was the Secret Service’s fault that a Virginia couple made its way to the administration’s first state dinner without an invitation.

But as criticisms grew, the White House stepped up Wednesday to shoulder some of the responsibility. The White House social office was told to return to a long-standing policy of having White House employees stationed at security checkpoints to help the Secret Service clear up any problems over invitations to these exclusive events.

For all the uproar, Obama said he still feels safe in the mansion and trusts the Secret Service to protect him and his family.

“I could not have more confidence in the Secret Service,” Obama told USA Today and the Detroit Free Press.

Some House lawmakers, however, weren’t as assured.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, said, “We’re all fortunate that this diplomatic celebration did not become a night of horror.”

“How in the world could this couple get past the Secret Service?” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, asked.

Sullivan responded: “I’ve asked myself that question 1,000 times over the last week.”

The couple — Tareq and Michaele Salahi — and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers were also invited to testify Thursday, but all three declined.

Committee staffers are already drafting subpoenas to compel the two aspiring reality-TV stars to testify.

The committee’s top Republican, New York’s Peter King, said it’s critical that the White House allow Rogers to testify as well. Sullivan told the lawmakers that the Secret Service and the White House social office together developed the security plan for the Nov. 24 dinner. Thompson is reluctant to subpoena Rogers — an Obama political appointee — because he maintains the Secret Service is responsible for security. King said he will ask Thompson to amend the Salahi subpoena to include Rogers.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cited the separation of powers and a history of White House staff not testifying before Congress in explaining why Rogers, herself a guest at the dinner, wouldn’t testify.

As a candidate, Obama supported Congress’ right to subpoena White House employees in cases of wrongdoing, even if it meant as president he might be weaker for it. So far, questions have been raised about Rogers’ judgment, but no one has suggested she broke any law.

“This blanket notion that you can’t subpoena White House aides where there’s evidence of genuine wrongdoing I think is completely misguided,” Obama said last year.