Was ABC News duped by third party-crasher’s phony invitation?

ABC News ran a photo Monday on “Good Morning America” of what it reported was an invitation to President Barack Obama’s Nov. 24 state dinner, provided by alleged third party-crasher Carlos Allen, who said the document proved he had been invited to the dinner.

ABC noted that the “invitation Allen provided to ABC News came without an official envelope or any documents bearing his name.”

But sources familiar with the invitation told ITK that Allen’s document is missing something much more critical than an envelope: an invitation.

That’s because Allen’s “invitation”   isn’t an invitation at all. It’s a dinner program, the kind that would have been placed at each guest’s seat and contained a welcome message, dinner menu and perhaps special thanks.

The real invitation reads:

The President and Mrs. Obama request the pleasure of the company of Mr. _____ at a dinner in honor of His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur, to be held at The White House on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at seven o’clock.

Allen’s document:

President and Mrs. Obama welcome you to the White House on the occasion of the visit of His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur.

Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for ABC News said the network never presented the document as an official White House correspondence, only what Allen alleged was proof of his having been invited.

Calls and emails to Carlos Allen were not returned at press time. The White House declined to comment on the discrepancy and referred all questions about the incident to the Justice Department. 

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