Washington, Mar 2 (EFE).- The U.S. Secret Service arrested two individuals for separate breaches of White House security, officials said Monday.
The first incident occurred around midnight Sunday when a man climbed over a bicycle rack next to the fence around the White House.
According to Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary, the man was arrested and charged with unlawful entry, while hours later, at dawn Monday, another man was arrested for trying to enter the presidential residence through a gate that opens onto Pennsylvania Avenue.
The man tried to get through the gate as another person was leaving, and was promptly arrested after a brief struggle with a Secret Service agent.
The reputation of the Secret Service have been scarred in recent years by a series of scandals and its effectiveness questioned.
One of the most notorious scandals involved 12 agents who took prostitutes to their hotel rooms before President Barack Obama arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, for the 2012 Summit of the Americas.
Last September, a veteran of the war in Iraq with supposed mental problems managed to enter the White House armed with a knife, and got as far as the second floor of the presidential residence.
The White House said in February that Obama will nominate the current acting-director of the Secret Service, Joseph Clancy, to head the agency permanently.
Clancy must be confirmed in that position by the Senate.
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