Secret Service director says she takes responsibility for White House breach

WASHINGTON – Secret Service Director Julia Pierson told U.S. lawmakers she takes full responsibility for the serious breach of the White House mansion eight days ago. That’s when an Army veteran with a knife climbed the fence and made his way well into the executive mansion before he was tackled.

Pierson also told a House panel there have been six fence-jumpers this year alone, including one just eight days before that intrusion.

Pierson is testifying before the House Oversight and government Reform Committee in her first public accounting of the episode.

The veteran, Omar J. Gonzalez, made it much further into the White House on Sept. 19 than the Secret Service previously disclosed. The service protects the president and his family.