Criminal Charges For Dinner Crashers?

The Virginia couple who crashed a presidential dinner met President Barack Obama in the receiving line, the White House said Friday, as a "deeply concerned and embarrassed" Secret Service acknowledged its officers failed to check whether the couple was on the guest list.

A White House official did not make clear whether Michaele and Tareq Salahi shook hands with the president or spoke with him. Guests going through a receiving line usually shake hands with the president.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing Secret Service inquiry that could turn into a criminal investigation.

The Secret Service earlier this week had said the president was not in danger because the couple -- like others at the dinner -- had gone through magnetometers. But in light of their close proximity to the president, no such claim was made Friday.

The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been prohibited from entering last Tuesday's dinner on the White House South Lawn for the prime minister of India, said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

On Friday, Sullivan was apologetic in a written statement, saying the agency that protects the president is "deeply concerned and embarrassed" that procedures were not followed.

"As our investigation continues, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated," Sullivan said.

The Warren County Report newspaper is reporting exclusively that two Secret Service agents showed up at the Oasis Winery in Hume on Friday morning at about 11 a.m. They reportedly told a vineyard manager that they were there to question Tareq and Michaele Salahi about showing up uninvited to Tuesday's dinner. She told them the couple didn't live there, and hadn't lived there for some time.

The employee says the agents left the following message: "They said it is imperative that they speak with them, and that if they didn't sit down and speak with them, they would take what actions are necessary."

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said officers at the checkpoint had a clipboard with names of the invited guests. Even though the Salahis names weren't on it, they were allowed to proceed. The officers should have called either someone on the White House staff or their own personnel before allowing them past the checkpoint, Mackin said.

Earlier, Mackin said the Secret Service may pursue a criminal investigation of the Salahis.

Sullivan said, "The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list.

"Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours," he said.

Sullivan said it wasn't good enough that his agency screened more than 1.2 million visitors last year to the White House complex and protected more than 10,000 sites for the president, vice president and others.

"Even with these successes, we need to be right 100 percent of the time," he said. "While we have protocols in place to address these situations, we must ensure that they are followed each and every time."

It is unclear what the couple told officers at the checkpoint that allowed them to go through the security screening. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify statements on matters within the federal government's jurisdiction.

"As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there's less that we can say," Mackin said. "I don't want to jeopardize what could be a criminal investigation. We're not leaving any option off the table at this point."

The Salahis lawyer, Paul Gardner, posted a comment on their Facebook page saying, "My clients were cleared by the White House, to be there." He said more information would be forthcoming.

Several messages left at Gardner's law firm on Friday were not immediately returned.

Another development Friday evening was related to Michaele Salahi's facebook page.  A photo posted on her page claims she was at a Redskins cheerleaders get together, but the trouble is team officials tell FOX 5 she was never on the squad.

A Washington Redskins cheerleader official tells FOX 5 that four years ago, Michaele Salahi phoned them and asked that her name be added to the alumni roster. Since this scandal broke, they did some investigating and found no evidence that she was ever a cheerleader.

Bravo Media has confirmed that Michaele Salahi is being considered as a participant in the upcoming "The Real Housewives of D.C." program and on the day of the dinner was being filmed around Washington by Half Yard Productions, the producer of the program.

"Half Yard Productions was told by Michaele and Tareq Salahi that they had been invited to the State Dinner. We took them at their word and filmed their preparations for the event. Half Yard Productions had no part in planning their presence at the event," said