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Investigation Into State Dinner Party Crashers
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 27, 2009
Modified Nov 27, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 27, 2009
Modified Nov 27, 2009
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The couple who apparently crashed the Obamas' first State Dinner on Monday has now caused the Secret Service to investigate how a couple with reality show dreams managed to get through the security. Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan wouldn't given details on how Michaele and Tareq Salahi managed to attend the event, "We're being intentionally vague on that. All we are saying is that procedures we have in place weren't followed."
A lawyer for the Salahis, who are vying to be on Bravo's upcoming season of The Real Housewives of Washington D.C., posted a statement, "My clients were cleared, by the White House, to be there. More information is forthcoming." The Washington Post was told by their publicist, "We will be addressing this specifically with several media platforms," and now it turns out that they will be appear on Larry King's CNN show on Monday. Please please please say that "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene will be there to provide a moment of truth!
Bravo's TV crews had been filming the couple, but said the production company's "crew were not on White House grounds. They filmed them traveling there and were done once cars reached the security checkpoint... The Salahis informed [production company] Half Yard that they were invited and the producers had no reason to believe otherwise." The White House denies that they were invited, and Michaele Salahi's hairdresser said that when he asked to see the invite, "She starts rummaging through her purse, and then said, 'It must be out in the car.'"
In fact, NBC News' Brian Williams, who attended the dinner, noticed the couple, because their SUV tried to make a U-turn while at the security checkpoint—Williams said the security there was very tight:
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Still, one publicist told the Daily News, "I was blown away. I can't understand how they did it. I just had to shake my head when I saw the news. The Secret Service! That's the organization everybody holds themselves to." And journalist Ronald Kessler has an opinion piece in the News, "The fact that Michaele and Tareq Salahi were allowed into the White House in this dangerous age is a disgrace and symptomatic of lax standards at the Secret Service ever since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003."
Gawker floats a theory: "Their polo buddy, Indian ambassador Arun K. Singh, got them in on the DL."
Tagged
Michaele Salahi
party crasher
secret service
State dinner
Tareq Salahi
White House
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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