Secret Service agent distracted by cellphone allowed fence-jumper to enter White House

Secret Service agent distracted by cellphone allowed fence-jumper to enter White House
(Image credit: iStock)

A cascading series of failures by the Secret Service allowed a fence-jumper to penetrate the White House in September, according to a scathing internal review made available to The New York Times. The details are not pretty:

The review found that the Secret Service’s alarm systems and radios failed to function properly, and that many of the responding officers did not see the intruder as he climbed over the fence, delaying their response.

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.