The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a man entered the home of President Biden’s national security adviser in the middle of the night roughly two weeks ago without being detected by agents guarding his house, according to three government officials.
The unknown man walked into Jake Sullivan’s home at about 3 a.m. one day in late April and Sullivan confronted the individual, instructing him to leave, two of the people briefed on the incident said. There were no signs of forced entry at the home, according to one of the people.
Sullivan has a round-the-clock Secret Service detail. But agents stationed outside the house were unaware that an intruder had gotten inside the home, located in the West End neighborhood of Washington, until the man had already left and Sullivan came outside to alert the agents, the two people said.
The intruder appeared to be intoxicated and confused about where he was, according to people briefed on the incident. There is no evidence the person knew Sullivan or sought to harm him, they said.
In a statement, the Secret Service said it has launched an investigation into the incident and how the intruder accessed Sullivan’s home undetected.
The agency said that it considered the security breach a matter of significant concern.
“While the protectee was unharmed, we are taking this matter seriously and have opened a comprehensive mission assurance investigation to review all facets of what occurred,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in the statement, in response to an inquiry from The Washington Post. “Any deviation from our protective protocols is unacceptable and if discovered, personnel will be held accountable.”
Guglielmi said the Secret Service has deployed additional security precautions for Sullivan and around his home, pending the completion of the investigation.
The White House declined to comment.
Normally, anyone intruding on the property of a person protected by the Secret Service would be detained for questioning, then most likely arrested and charged with trespassing. But people familiar with the incident said the person who entered Sullivan’s home departed the scene before Secret Service agents were alerted to his presence.
Although Sullivan was unhurt, the incident has sparked alarm among the very small group of White House and national security officials made aware of the episode, especially because the Secret Service in 2021 added a heightened level of security for the national security adviser, a senior aide to the president who coordinates diplomatic and military affairs.
Previously, national security advisers were provided Secret Service protection only when they traveled outside the Washington area, according to a senior national security official and a former Secret Service executive. That changed after the FBI uncovered a 2021 Iranian plot to assassinate John Bolton, the then-retired national security adviser who had served under President Donald Trump, the current official explained.
Following that discovery, the Secret Service decided to extend full-time protective details to Sullivan, Bolton and Robert C. O’Brien, Bolton’s successor. That means agents are now stationed outside Sullivan’s Washington home full-time when he is in town.
The Justice Department charged an Iranian military official in the Bolton plot in August 2022. Before resigning his post in 2019, Bolton had been the primary architect of a campaign of escalating sanctions and threats of retaliation over Iran’s support of terrorist activity.
The incident at Sullivan’s home comes after last October’s attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the couple’s San Francisco home. An intruder broke in during the early-morning hours, shouting, “Where is Nancy?” and assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The then-speaker, who is protected by the U.S. Capitol Police and not the Secret Service, was not at home at the time.
Capitol Police cameras at the Pelosi home captured the break-in in real time, but it was not immediately seen in the Washington command center, The Post reported last year.
Sullivan lives with his wife, Margaret Goodlander, a former counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland who now serves in the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
He has served as Biden’s national security adviser since the start of his presidency, coming to the White House after holding a senior role in the Biden campaign. In the Obama administration, Sullivan advised Biden, who was then vice president, on national security issues and also worked as a top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ultimately joining her 2016 presidential campaign.
As Biden’s top national security aide, Sullivan has played an integral role in all of the president’s foreign policy decisions and activities, from the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to the creation of a global coalition in support of Ukraine.
He has traveled on nearly every foreign trip with the president and is expected to leave Wednesday with Biden as the president heads to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
The Secret Service has faced challenges over the past decade in keeping up with the rapidly expanding roster of people it is assigned to protect, in part because its annual budget has not kept pace with that added responsibility.
Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the service provided protection for 18 people, including the president and vice president. That number began to swell as the nation focused more on terrorist threats, and by the start of the Biden administration the service was providing protective details to 27 people, including the president’s grandchildren.
The unknown man walked into Jake Sullivan’s home at about 3 a.m. one day in late April and Sullivan confronted the individual, instructing him to leave, two of the people briefed on the incident said. There were no signs of forced entry at the home, according to one of the people.
Sullivan has a round-the-clock Secret Service detail. But agents stationed outside the house were unaware that an intruder had gotten inside the home, located in the West End neighborhood of Washington, until the man had already left and Sullivan came outside to alert the agents, the two people said.
The intruder appeared to be intoxicated and confused about where he was, according to people briefed on the incident. There is no evidence the person knew Sullivan or sought to harm him, they said.
In a statement, the Secret Service said it has launched an investigation into the incident and how the intruder accessed Sullivan’s home undetected.
The agency said that it considered the security breach a matter of significant concern.
“While the protectee was unharmed, we are taking this matter seriously and have opened a comprehensive mission assurance investigation to review all facets of what occurred,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in the statement, in response to an inquiry from The Washington Post. “Any deviation from our protective protocols is unacceptable and if discovered, personnel will be held accountable.”
Guglielmi said the Secret Service has deployed additional security precautions for Sullivan and around his home, pending the completion of the investigation.
The White House declined to comment.
Normally, anyone intruding on the property of a person protected by the Secret Service would be detained for questioning, then most likely arrested and charged with trespassing. But people familiar with the incident said the person who entered Sullivan’s home departed the scene before Secret Service agents were alerted to his presence.
Although Sullivan was unhurt, the incident has sparked alarm among the very small group of White House and national security officials made aware of the episode, especially because the Secret Service in 2021 added a heightened level of security for the national security adviser, a senior aide to the president who coordinates diplomatic and military affairs.
Previously, national security advisers were provided Secret Service protection only when they traveled outside the Washington area, according to a senior national security official and a former Secret Service executive. That changed after the FBI uncovered a 2021 Iranian plot to assassinate John Bolton, the then-retired national security adviser who had served under President Donald Trump, the current official explained.
Following that discovery, the Secret Service decided to extend full-time protective details to Sullivan, Bolton and Robert C. O’Brien, Bolton’s successor. That means agents are now stationed outside Sullivan’s Washington home full-time when he is in town.
The Justice Department charged an Iranian military official in the Bolton plot in August 2022. Before resigning his post in 2019, Bolton had been the primary architect of a campaign of escalating sanctions and threats of retaliation over Iran’s support of terrorist activity.
The incident at Sullivan’s home comes after last October’s attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the couple’s San Francisco home. An intruder broke in during the early-morning hours, shouting, “Where is Nancy?” and assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The then-speaker, who is protected by the U.S. Capitol Police and not the Secret Service, was not at home at the time.
Capitol Police cameras at the Pelosi home captured the break-in in real time, but it was not immediately seen in the Washington command center, The Post reported last year.
Sullivan lives with his wife, Margaret Goodlander, a former counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland who now serves in the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
He has served as Biden’s national security adviser since the start of his presidency, coming to the White House after holding a senior role in the Biden campaign. In the Obama administration, Sullivan advised Biden, who was then vice president, on national security issues and also worked as a top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ultimately joining her 2016 presidential campaign.
As Biden’s top national security aide, Sullivan has played an integral role in all of the president’s foreign policy decisions and activities, from the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to the creation of a global coalition in support of Ukraine.
He has traveled on nearly every foreign trip with the president and is expected to leave Wednesday with Biden as the president heads to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
The Secret Service has faced challenges over the past decade in keeping up with the rapidly expanding roster of people it is assigned to protect, in part because its annual budget has not kept pace with that added responsibility.
Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the service provided protection for 18 people, including the president and vice president. That number began to swell as the nation focused more on terrorist threats, and by the start of the Biden administration the service was providing protective details to 27 people, including the president’s grandchildren.
