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Whitehouse social secretary quits

Published:Monday | March 1, 2010 | 9:15 AM

White House social secretary Desiree Rogers has announced her resignation, three months after a couple gate crashed the president\'s first state dinner.



Ms Rogers had admitted to not having staff at security checkpoints to identify invited guests.



Tareq and Michaele Salahi reportedly gained access to the event without invitation.



They also posed for cameras and shook hands with President Barack Obama.



Three Secret Service agents have been disciplined over the security breach.



Ms Rogers told the Chicago Sun-Times that she had worked to make the White House the \"people\'s house\" and that after 14 months on the job she was considering a return to the private sector.



President Obama and his wife Michelle, who have known Ms Rogers since they lived in Chicago, issued a statement thanking her for her work organizing White House events.



And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said that Ms Rogers was neither forced out nor asked to leave.