Omar Gonzalez, the 42-year-old White House intruder that jumped over the mansion's fence earlier this month, reportedly made it much farther into the White House than previously reported.
Gonzalez was able to overpower an officer of the Secret Service and ran through most of the White House's main floor.
It was initially reported that Gonzalez was caught by the Secret Service at the North Portico doors of the White House, which is one of the mansion's main entrances.
As Gonzalez was able to run through the whole length of the complex grounds and reach the North Portico doors, the security of the White House under the guard of the Secret Service has been heavily criticized.
However, sources by the Washington Post reveal details that Gonzalez was able to reach far deeper into the White House, which would add even more criticisms to the competence of the Secret Service.
The Secret Service officer that was tasked with guarding the front entrance was apparently late in learning that an intruder was on the White House grounds. The officers are trained to lock the front door upon being alerted of an intruder, which is through the alarm boxes located around the White House.
However, according to an official of the Secret Service who requested to remain anonymous, the alarm box located near the front entrance of the mansion was muted at the time due to a request made by the usher's office.
Gonzalez overpowered the Secret Service officer located behind the front doors and, while brandishing a knife, ran past a stairway and into the East Room, which is an 80-foot-long space that is mostly used for presidential speeches and receptions.
At the East Room, Gonzalez was apprehended by an agent that tackled him at the room's southern area, but not before Gonzalez was able to reach the doors of the Green Room of the White House.
Many intruders have breached the fence of the White House, but most have been apprehended by officers of the Secret Service while still on the mansion's lawn. Gonzalez is the first intruder that was able to make it inside the White House.
While Julia Pierson, the director of the Secret Service, told President Obama that the agency was already shoring up security after the breach, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight panel's subcommittee on national security, is looking to scrutinize Pierson and the Secret Service.
According to Chaffetz' sources, the usher staff of the White House, which has their office near the mansion's front door, had the alarm boxes silenced because they were disturbing them as the boxes were often malfunctioning.
The alarm boxes are designed so that once one of them has its button pressed, the box sends out an alert to all posts in the White House complex regarding the location of the incident and sending sound from that location to all the other boxes.
Chaffetz is saying that the incident is a "failure of leadership."
"The agency needs a solution that goes deeper than more fences and more people," he said. "It must examine what message is being sent to the men and women who protect the president when their leader sacrifices security to appease superficial concerns of White House ushers."
