--- title: Secret Service Scandals: White House Intruder Omar Gonzalez and Others description: From White House intruders to wild and crazy nights canonical: https://time.com/3449641/secret-service-scandal/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-30T17:31:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:37.068Z article:section: History og:title: 9 Secret Service Screw-Ups and Scandals og:description: From White House intruders to wild and crazy nights og:url: https://time.com/3449641/secret-service-scandal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c7bad3f1fc04056/6986a6301eebf7f977372f0a/secret-service.jpeg?branch=production&width=1077&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1077 og:image:height: 606 og:image:alt: Secret Service - stock photo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 9 Secret Service Screw-Ups and Scandals twitter:description: From White House intruders to wild and crazy nights twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c7bad3f1fc04056/6986a6301eebf7f977372f0a/secret-service.jpeg?branch=production&width=1077&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 9 Secret Service Screw-Ups and Scandals > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 30, 2014 5:31 PM UTC  President Bush Visits 10 Downing Street President Bush Visits 10 Downing Street Ian Waldie—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 30, 2014 5:31 PM UTC With Secret Service Director Julia Pierson [appearing before a House oversight panel](http://time.com/3449408/white-house-fence-jumper-secret-service/) on Tuesday with promises to fix the agency after revelations that a fence-jumper made it all the way to the East Room, the agency is making lots of promises. “It will never happen again,” Pierson told the panel. But as hopeful as she may be, those who remember even the recent history of the agency have reason to take that vow with a grain of salt. Not only is there a [decades-long history of intrusions at the White House,](http://time.com/3429668/white-houses-weak-security/) but the agency is also no stranger to messing up. For example: **Earlier this year**, [three agents were sent home](http://time.com/38093/secret-service-drinking-obama-europe/) from a trip to the Netherlands after getting drunk the night before the President was set to arrive. **In 2013**, two agents were removed[ from Presidential security detail](http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/14/two-secret-service-agents-dismissed-from-obamas-detail/) after sending sexually inappropriate emails to a colleague, which was uncovered when one of the agents was discovered trying to forcefully enter a woman’s hotel room after forgetting a bullet inside. **In 2012,** eight agents were [fired](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/23/secret-service-agents-fired-in-sex-scandal-want-their-jobs-back/) after it emerged that they had [allegedly solicited prostitutes](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/23/meet-the-steely-woman-who-booted-11-secret-service-agents-from-colombia/) while on an on-duty trip to Colombia. **In 2001,** an agent [admitted](http://articles.philly.com/2001-05-02/news/25300432%5F1%5Ftheft-case-agents-counterfeiting) to having stolen nearly $3,000 in cash that the Secret Service had taken as evidence in the years prior. **In 1999,** an agent in Chicago with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton went to a hotel bar and put her service weapon in her purse under her chair; a thief with a long arrest record [stole the gun](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/756998/Gun-stolen-from-first-ladys-body-guard.html?pg=all). **In 1998,** during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Ken Starr got permission to question Secret Service agents. Though helping a President find some personal privacy for a tryst was [nothing new](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964398,00.html) in the agency’s history, the Starr Report still made [headlines ](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,989114,00.html)by revealing that agents had watched her come and go from the Oval Office. **In 1997,** an agent who was guarding former President Ronald Reagan was [convicted](http://articles.latimes.com/1997/aug/09/local/me-20793) of sex with a minor and possession of drugs, as well as resisting arrest. **In 1971,** in the realm of legal-but-shady real-estate dealings, [it was revealed](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,877342,00.html) that the Secret Service had arranged for a Florida home near President Nixon’s compound in the area to be sold for $150,000—the owners were, ironically, annoyed by all the Secret Service presence—to a buyer who turned out to be a friend of the administration’s, who subsequently leased the house back to the the Secret Service. **In 1964,** when the Warren Commission investigated the Kennedy assassination, [the group found](http://time.com/3418710/warren-commission-report/) that Secret Service agents had been drinking the night before the event—though there was no accusation that the drinking impaired their work, it was still forbidden—and that the route was not properly secured. Then again, hope for a scandal-free secret service isn’t necessarily misplaced. After all, the agency once had a spotless record. In the April 16, 1934, issue of TIME, agency chief William Herman Moran recalled 52 years in the agency and was “proud that, since its organization in 1861, his secret police system has never had a scandal.” The same article recounts the story of an agent who stopped President Warren Harding from getting on a boat that soon sank and President Herbert Hoover from speaking from a platform that had been “gutted by termites” to the point of collapse. Highly visible saves —like preventing President Reagan’s assassination in 1981—are few and far between, but daily successes like looking out for termites are likely to have continued over the decades that would follow, largely unnoticed. It’s the fate of the Secret Service that, until its agents do something wrong, the work that they do mostly remains, well, secret. ### PHOTOS: Go Behind the Scenes with the Secret Service  Secret Service agents stand guard around President Bush's Limousine on the tarmac as he arrives in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 25, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secret Service agents surround U.S. President Barack Obama at a campaign event in Las Vegas on Nov. 1, 2012. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  A Secret Service agent watches the crowd as President Barrack Obama speaks in Holmdel, N.J. on July 16, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  U.S. President George W. Bush attends a campaign rally in the town square of Troy, Ohio, on Aug. 28, 2004. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secret Service agents watch as President George W. Bush lands in Philadelphia on March 15, 2004. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secret Service agents watch as U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Nov. 3, 2006. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  A Presidential limousine is loaded onto a C5 military transport plane bound for eastern Europe, where President Bush is headed next week. A "secure package" of motorcade vehicles, including the limousines and a fleet of Secret Service SUVs is transported to the site of every presidential visit, Maryland, March 28, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  A Secret Service agent stands guard in front of President George W Bush's vehicle, while he tours rebuilding efforts in a neighborhood affected by Hurricane Katrina, in Long Beach, Miss. on March 1, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  A Secret Service agent with the Counter Assault and Tactical Division holds a loaded weapon in front of the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Oct. 28, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Members of the Counter Asault Division of the US Secret Service keep an eye on the crowd as President Barack Obama departs the Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington on March 10, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  A uniformed secret service agent waits for the arrival of President Bush and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on the North Portico of the White House in Washington on Oct. 13, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secret Service agents stand near the Presidential Limousine at the conclusion of a campaign rally attended by President Bush in an airport hanger in Sugar Land, Texas on Oct. 30, 2006. 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