A man was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service outside the White House after he climbed an outer fence on the South Grounds.
The entire incident, which occurred on February 3 at approximately 4:20 p.m., was captured on video by witness David Stanley. In his post on X, Stanley claimed that the man passed him, yelled, “F*** it,” and started to scale the fence.
The suspect’s identity has not yet been made public, and it is unclear whether he is being charged. David Stanley is credited with the video.
Stanley reports that rooftop snipers were “scurrying around” and K9s were racing on the lawn when Secret Service officers arrived on the scene of the climb.
After that, our officers took the person into custody. As of right now, the Secret Service has not disclosed the man’s identity or the reason he started scaling the fence.
Mission support staff, uniformed officers, special agents, and cutting-edge security measures guard the 18-acre White House complex.
According to Secret Service protocol, the agency will review protective operations about this incident, including security measures and response. Whether the suspect will be charged is still up in the air.
**Note: Video contains some profanity**
WATCH:
Did someone try to jump over the White House fence?pic.twitter.com/JPyTdgLJR6
— Community Notes & Violations (@CNviolations) February 4, 2025
The Secret Service has “deep flaws” that allowed the attack at the Trump campaign rally, according to an independent panel that reviewed the July assassination attempt against then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The panel also called for “fundamental reform” of the agency to fulfill its mission of protecting top government officials worldwide.
The independent review panel noted in a letter signed by all four members that it had discovered “numerous mistakes” during its investigation that resulted in the attempted assassination of Trump, but also “deeper systemic issues that must be addressed with urgency.”
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the members said. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
The panel dedicated its work to Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the shooting, and James Copenhaver and David Dutch, who were injured, as well as their families.
“These actions will be responsive not only to the security failures that led to the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt but, importantly, to what the Independent Review Panel describes as systemic and foundational issues that underlie those failures,” the members said.
The group also cited “deeper concerns” it had discovered regarding the Secret Service, such as a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel in the days leading up to and following the assassination attempt, “corrosive cultural attitudes” regarding resources, and a “lack of clarity” regarding who has security ownership of a protectee’s site.
It criticized Secret Service leadership for what the panel claimed was a “insufficiently experienced-based approach” by Trump’s detail regarding the choice of agents to carry out security-critical tasks and a failure to assume responsibility for security planning and execution at the Butler rally.
The breakdowns “reveal deep flaws in the Secret Service, including some that appear to be systemic or cultural,” according to the report.
It recommended new Secret Service leadership with outside agency experience and a return to the agency’s “core protective mission” to address the problems the panel had identified.
“The Secret Service must be the world’s leading governmental protective organization,” according to the report. “The events at Butler on July 13 demonstrate that, currently, it is not.”
This comes as President Donald Trump nominated Sean Curran, the head of his personal Secret Service security detail, to serve as director of the U.S. Secret Service.
Curran, one of several quick-thinking agents who hurried onstage to defend Trump during an attempted assassination on July 13, was already anticipated to be appointed to the role.
Trump called the appointment of Curran an “honor” in a Truth Social post.
Trump taps Sean Curran, the agent who rushed on stage during Butler assassination attempt, to lead Secret Service https://t.co/wRE9QBdVbm pic.twitter.com/NQ2bTChm4p
— David Lester Straight (@DavidLesterr_) January 23, 2025