House panel asks Desiree Rogers to join party-crasher hearing

By Ed O'Keefe and Scott Butterworth in The Post's 44 blog

Republican members of the House Homeland Security Committee have invited White House social secretary Desirée Rogers to testify Thursday, a committee aide said Monday night, about how a couple from Northern Virginia slipped into the White House last week for a state dinner, despite not being on the guest list.

Rogers acknowledged to the Associated Press last Thursday that no one from her office was at a security checkpoint last Tuesday to assist Secret Service agents in determining whether partygoers should be admitted to the mansion. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were waved through the checkpoint and later came face-to-face with President Obama in a receiving line.

Democrats on the House committee announced Monday that they would convene a hearing on the matter, and invited the Salahis and Secret Service director Mark J. Sullivan to testify. Republicans later asked Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) to add Rogers to the witness list, the aide said.

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