Damning Internal Review Finds Alarming Security Failures by Secret Service in White House Intruder Incident: Report

A review of the White House intruder incident concluded that a series of "performance, organizational, technical" and other security failures eased the way for a man to make his way inside the executive mansion, the New York Times reported Thursday.

According to the Times, the review found that the Secret Service's alarms and radios failed to work correctly during the September incident — and that several of the officers on duty did not initially see intruder Omar Gonzales climb over the fence.

A U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officer stands between the temporary barricade and the fence line of the White House in Washington, DC, October 23, 2014. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The report found that the officer who could have halted Gonzales on the North Lawn was in fact distracted in his van talking on his personal cellphone and did not notice that an intruder had scaled the fence and broken the perimeter, the Times reported.

Further, the officer did not have his earpiece in, nor did he have a secondary radio on him, the report added, according to the Times.

The damning DHS review has not been released to the public, but members of Congress were briefed and provided the Times a review of the findings.

The incident, along with other security failures, led to the resignation of Julia Pierson, who served as Secret Service director at the time.

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