The two aspiring reality TV stars who gate-crashed a state dinner last week met US President Barack Obama at the event, a new White House photograph showed.
The US Secret Service meanwhile issued an unusual mea culpa for the security lapse on Tuesday at the White House State Dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with director Mark Sullivan admitting the agency was “embarrassed” by the incident.
The photo released by the White House on Friday showed a smiling Obama greeting the couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, at a reception line at the event. Singh is seen standing next to Obama.
The president has ordered a full review of the incident, the Politico news Web site said, citing an Obama aide.
An internal Secret Service investigation is ongoing.
The pair beat several layers of security to attend the dinner, and Sullivan acknowledged on Friday that based on an agency probe, protocols were not followed at a security checkpoint to verify if the couple was invited.
“The Secret Service is deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the state dinner,” Sullivan said in a statement.
The Salahis boasted of turning up at the event on their joint Facebook page with the message “honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!”
The couple posted photos posing with US Vice President Joe Biden, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — whom they mistakenly identified as “Ron Emanuel” — and even three uniformed marines.
Secret Service agents visited a winery in Virginia on Friday in a bid to question the couple, who listed the address as their residence, although they hadn’t lived there since 2006, the local Warren County Report said.
“We are not here to arrest the Salahis today,” Oasis Winery manager Diane Weiss quoted one of the Secret Service agents as saying.
“It is imperative that we speak with them. If they do not sit down with us and talk we will take whatever action necessary,” the agent said.
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