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Michelle Obama State Dinner crashers NBC Today-Crashgate VI

Paul W Gardner lawyer with State Dinner crasher Salahi. NBC Today Tuesday
Paul W Gardner lawyer with State Dinner crasher Salahi. NBC Today Tuesday
Photo credit: 
AP

The State Dinner crashers have been "invited" to attend a hearing by House Committee on Homeland Security chairman Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi on Thursday, the hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3, at 10 a.m., Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan is expected to attend. This comes off the latest news that Michaele and Tareq Salahi made contact with a high level official at the Pentagon by email in order to obtain tickets. They communicated with Michele S. Jones, special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates who serves as a liaison to the White House. The state dinner crashers turned those e-mails over to the Secret Service.

How do they know Michelle S. Jones?, it looks like through their lawyer Paul W. Gardner , he is apparently listed  as one of her Facebook friends. Paul W. Gardner II is Managing Partner of the Gardner Law Group in Baltimore Maryland. So it appears the Salahi lawyer was somehow involved in putting together the deal with Half Yard productions which produces the "Real Housewives of Washington". 

I would expect the Salahis to show up to hearing, the House Committee on Homeland Security has the power to issue a subpoena. 

The Salahi spokesperson Mahagony Jones insists they were invited, it's funny that Mahagony Jones had a Twitter account using the name huslinNstiletos that has been taken down. 

Mahagony Jones has stated the state dinner crashers are not shopping interviews.

They are scheduled to appear on the NBC "Today" program Tuesday morning and will talk to Matt Lauer live via satellite from their Washington affiliate. NBC is part of  NBC Universal, the company that owns Bravo media and produces "Real Housewives of Washington". Don't expect too many tough questions here, just a lot of "this is all a big misunderstanding". Expect NBC "Today" to verify whether anyone from Half Yard Productions came on White House grounds and if they knew they did not have invite. also expect a lot of bad acting from Salahis. NBC looks like they are still trying to bring this Washington Housewives show to TV! NBC has sunk to new lows  for them to deal with these two.

State Dinner crashers may not testify Committee Homeland Security

These two people are starting to scare me. The White House has stated they were not invited. The proof is they are not on any list and no one with the authority to wave them in was notified. Yet, Tareq continues to say he was invited. Looks like Tareq is the one pushing this whole thing. He seems a little hard headed. What I'm saying is the two are not refined enough during the interview to make their story sound believable, I could possibly believe Tareq selling this 15 years ago when he was good looking and 50 pounds lighter . They both keep interrupting each other, fighting to get their words in edge wise, they seem a little mad about having to do a free interview.

The fact remains, these guys are just not that interesting, lack the character development to keep anybodies attention for more than a couple weeks to warrant a spot on a reality show. I'm saying that invited or not.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his briefing today:

"That the individuals that are listed weren't on any list. I think the Secret Service, through the director, has admitted that somebody who wasn't on a list and wasn't WAVE'd in was allowed into an event that clearly he said shouldn't be, and that no call or reach-out ever came to anybody in terms of staff from the Secret Service about whether or not there was confusion on a name on a list."

It looks like the White House has been forced by the media and the pending Congressional hearing to firm up their stance on the whole situation. A question in the briefing came up about a Social Secretary staff member that was fired earlier in the year. Gibbs reiterated that the problem is that the Secret Service did not attempt any communication with the White House Social Secretary's staff or anybody else about the State Dinner crashers. It appears the reporter was trying to throw partial blame at the feet of  White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers. Gibbs emphasized that the White House is not placing blame on the Secret Service.

White House social secretary Desiree Rogers has been asked to testify at a Thursday hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The hearing is titled "The United States Secret Service and Presidential Protection: Examination of a System Failure." Committee chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) sent Rogers a letter on Monday inviting her to testify, acting on a request by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the committee.


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Slideshow: State Dinner Crashers NBC Today-

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Salahi with Paul W. Gardner-lawyer

Slideshow: State Dinner Crashers NBC Today-

, Michelle Obama Examiner

Michelle Obama news and politics, includes current fashion and style on First lady, wife of President Barack Obama. Also covers daughters Sasha Obama and Malia Obama. Michelle Obama is living history. New stories every week from new media journalist Clifford Bryan.

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