Official Denies Offering Couple Tickets to White House Dinner
“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evenings events,” Michele Jones, special assistant to the secretary of defense, said in a statement released by the White House last night.
Tareq and Michaele Salahi attended the Nov. 24 event, which honored Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although they werent on the official guest list.
Jones, an acquaintance of the couples lawyer, exchanged e- mails with them before the dinner about getting tickets, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing anonymous sources familiar with a Secret Service investigation into the matter.
The e-mails encouraged the Salahis, who live in a nearby Virginia suburb, to come to the White House on the night of the dinner, according to the Post, citing the anonymous sources. In her statement, Jones denied making that suggestion.
“I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evenings activities,” she said. ”Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”
Testimony Request
The Salahis received an invitation yesterday from the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee to testify at a Dec. 3 hearing about how they slipped past security.
The House panel also asked U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan to testify, according to a press release from the committee. Malcolm Wiley, a Secret Service spokesman, said that if called to testify, Sullivan would do so.
“This is a time for answers, recognition of security deficiencies past and present, and remedies to ensure the strength of the Secret Service and the safety of those under its protection,” Representative Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the committee, said in a statement.
The hearing will focus on other security breaches, such as concerns expressed by top campaign donors to President Barack Obama about potential lapses during his inauguration on Jan. 20, said Dena Graziano, a spokeswoman for Thompson.
The panel “is not going to look at this one isolated incident,” she said, referring to the state dinner.
A Little Time
Wiley said yesterday he didnt know when the probe would be finished. “These things generally take a little time,” he said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday that Obama is aware of the seriousness of the breach.
“The president shares the concern that the director has for how this happened and how we can remedy it from happening again,” he said.
A statement from the couples publicity agent denied reports the Salahis were trying to sell an interview about their experience to the highest bidder.
“We refute these false allegations,” said Mahogany Jones, the press agent. “The Salahis are not shopping any interviews or demanding money from any media networks to tell their story.”
In an interview, the press agent said the couple would give a complete version of what happened, declining to say when they would talk. “We will address” the incident “top to bottom,” she said. “Theyre eager to get their story out.”