Massive Breach Leaves Secret Service Scrambling

(UnitedVoice.com) – The US Secret Service is famous around the world for protecting our political leaders. Highly trained and dedicated, its agents are the most respected bodyguards on the planet. If they’re guarding your home, you should have the ultimate in personal security, except — maybe not.

"The real big alarm bell is the Secret Service was not aware that a person basically walked right into his house in the middle of the night." @CarolLeonnig breaks down her new reporting about an intruder getting into National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's home last month. pic.twitter.com/2eAVjupeow

— Katy Tur Reports (@KatyOnMSNBC) May 16, 2023

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has a Secret Service detail to protect him around the clock. That detail guards his home, so in theory, there should have been no way an intruder could get inside undetected. However, one morning in late April, Sullivan woke up at 3 a.m. and realized someone had gotten into his house. Investigating, he found an “apparently intoxicated” man wandering around. Sullivan told him to leave, which he did, then went outside to tell his Secret Service detail what had happened. It turned out the agents hadn’t noticed the man enter the house, and they hadn’t seen him leave again either; the intruder is still at large.

In this case, there doesn’t seem to have been any danger. There were no signs of forced entry, suggesting the man — who Sullivan said seemed drunk and confused — had been able to just open the door and walk in. The intruder didn’t appear to know Sullivan or wish him any harm. However, the National Security Advisor is a prime target for hostile regimes. In 2021, the FBI foiled an Iranian plot to kill one of Sullivan’s predecessors, John Bolton. With that level of threat, good security is vital.

Now, the Secret Service has launched a probe to find out what went wrong. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says the agency is taking the incident seriously and has opened a “mission assurance investigation” into it. He added that if any personnel are found to have violated procedures, they’ll be held accountable. In the meantime, extra security has been deployed to Sullivan’s home — but he’ll probably still be checking that his doors are locked from now on.