Prosecutors recommend maximum prison sentence for White House fence jumper
Federal prosecutors are recommending 21 months of prison time for Omar Gonzalez, the man who jumped the White House fence last September and made it well into the executive mansion before he was apprehended.
The recommendation, delivered Thursday in a sentencing memo, is the maximum allowed under the law.
The memo also included pictures of weapons that were found in Gonzalez's car when he was arrested after a car chase with police in July, two months before he breached the White House grounds. Gonzalez had only a folding knife on his person when he was apprehended in the East Room of the White House, but a number of guns, knives, and other weapons -- along with a map to the White House -- were found in his car several months prior.
Gonzalez pled guilty to two charges in March. He's scheduled to be sentenced next week, but it's likely his sentencing hearing will be delayed at the request of his attorney.
The incident kicked off an intense round of scrutiny for the Secret Service, which committed several communication and tactical failures -- including leaving the door to the White House unlocked -- on the day of Gonzalez's breach. The Secret Service director at the time, Julia Pierson, stepped down. Her replacement, Joseph Clancy, has embarked on a series of infrastructural and institutional reforms recommended by a review of the security breach.
Last month, the agency began measuring the around the White House to prepare for the installation of security spikes atop the barrier to deter climbers.
"The President is supportive of the reforms that Director Clancy has put in place over the last several months, and there are steps that have been taken," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday. "The President continues to have confidence in the professionalism and effort that our men and women in the Secret Service put in to keeping the White House and the first family safe."
CBS News' Arden Farhi and Paula Reid contributed to this report.