Substance found in White House confirmed to be cocaine

Table Of Content

• ‘You Little F*cking 26-Year-Old!’ James Carville Torches Young Voters for Not Supporting Biden
• South Dakota gov has 'no shot' as Trump's VP pick after puppy-killing controversy: sources
• Cocaine found in the White House was in a different location than previously reported, sources say
• Substance found in White House confirmed to be cocaine
• Published July 5, 2023
• Suspicious powder found at the White House was cocaine, sources say
• Colin Jost headlines White House Correspondents' Dinner with cocaine, O.J. Simpson jokes

The Secret Service described the location of the substance as "inside a vestibule leading to the lobby area of the West Executive Avenue entrance to the White House." "The investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered," Secret Service officials said. The lobby is open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work in the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list. There were tours on the day, a Sunday, the drugs were found, as well as on the two preceding days.

‘You Little F*cking 26-Year-Old!’ James Carville Torches Young Voters for Not Supporting Biden

The Secret Service said in a statement the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated, and that the District of Columbia fire department was called in to evaluate and determine that the substance was not hazardous. Officers found the cocaine during a routine patrol, a Secret Service official said. The sources maintain that the area is highly trafficked, in keeping with Jean-Pierre's characterization Wednesday. The area is transited by VIPs, visitors, tourists, staff members, military officials and facilities operations employees. In updating where the cocaine was found, officials said that area was also heavily trafficked.

South Dakota gov has 'no shot' as Trump's VP pick after puppy-killing controversy: sources

Secret Service Uniformed Division found an unknown substance inside a vestibule leading to the lobby area of the West Executive Avenue entrance to the White House. He went on, "The last time I was in D.C. I left my cocaine at the White House," referring to a scandal in which a bag of coke was found at the White House last July. "Luckily, the President was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union. I am kidding, of course. The president doesn’t call it cocaine. He calls it high-speed rail." Jost brought up the sore subject of President Biden's age, a major stumbling block in polling as the 2024 presidential election nears. He joked that Biden, 81, remembered the American Revolution and that school newspapers did not exist when he was in high school. President Joe Biden was not at the White House at the time the substance was discovered; he left for Camp David on Friday, returning to Washington on Tuesday morning.

Cocaine found in the White House was in a different location than previously reported, sources say

"If the White House complex is not secure, Congress needs to know the details, as well as your plan to correct any security flaws," Cotton said. Secret Service representatives briefed members of the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees on Capitol Hill on Thursday after lawmakers requested answers on the probe and security protocols at the White House. The discovery of the "unknown item" prompted a "precautionary closure" of the White House, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi acknowledged in a statement Tuesday. Unlike some other federal entities, the Secret Services does not have drug-sniffing dogs. If an officer encounters a powder or substance on White House grounds or in surrounding areas, they routinely request the assistance of D.C.

"Luckily, the president was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union. I am kidding, of course. The president doesn’t call it cocaine. He calls it high-speed rail." A source familiar with the investigation said that the Secret Service will lead a full review, which will include consulting cameras and entrance logs to determine who had access to the space where the small plastic bag was found Sunday night. "On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area," Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said. "The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending." After 11 days, the Secret Service wrapped up its investigation without naming a suspect and claimed that surveillance footage did not reveal the identity of the culprit.

Published July 5, 2023

Video of the West Executive street lobby entrance did not identify the person or provide any solid investigative leads, the Secret Service said. U.S. Secret Service agents found the white powder during a routine White House sweep on July 2, in a heavily trafficked West Wing lobby where staff go in and out, and tour groups gather to drop their phones and other belongings. The source added that no surprises about what the substance is are expected after the field test result indicated cocaine but that proper lab testing is being done for a formal conclusion. WASHINGTON — The Secret Service is investigating a “small amount” of a “white, powdery substance” discovered in a work area in the West Wing on Sunday, a Secret Service official said. Beyond the vague mention of “big law firms in Washington” there was no elaborating on who specifically would target Biden. If Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, he would ultimately appoint an attorney general and control the Department of Justice.

While awaiting the FBl's results, the Secret Service investigation into how this item entered the White House continued. The investigation included a methodical review of security systems and protocols. This review included a backwards examination that spanned several days prior to the discovery of the substance and developed an index of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the substance was found. The focal point of these actions developed a pool of known persons for comparison of forensic evidence gleaned from the FBI’s analysis of the substance's packaging. According to the AP, the president and his family — including Hunter Biden — left for Camp David, a presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont, Maryland, on June 30, 2023. In reality, the cocaine was discovered in a common area of the West Wing, according to several reputable publications, including AP and CBS News.

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It is one floor below the main West Wing offices and on the same floor as the Situation Room and a dining area. But the lab results didn’t turn up latent fingerprints or DNA, so agents can’t compare anything to the possible suspect pool. Meanwhile, Secret Service investigators put together a list of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the drugs were found.

Colin Jost headlines White House Correspondents' Dinner with cocaine, O.J. Simpson jokes

The first family, including the president’s son Hunter Biden, who described his battle with addiction in a recent autobiography, returned to the residence on Tuesday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that public tours of the West Wing had taken place over the weekend but deferred to the Secret Service for details about the investigation. “We have confidence that they will get to the bottom of this,” Jean-Pierre said. A Secret Service review of visitor logs and surveillance cameras will seek to determine how the cocaine, described as being in a small, zippered bag, came to be in the executive mansion. "The president thinks it's very important to get to the bottom of this," Jean-Pierre said in response to a question about how determined Biden is to uncover who brought drugs into the White House.

That prompted Chris Jackson, a Tennessee election commissioner and longtime Democratic operative, to say on Twitter he hoped Biden “sues the hell out of everyone suggesting this”. “We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride,” a radio dispatch from the White House said. "The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending," the Secret Service said. Officers found the cocaine during "routine patrols," a Secret Service official said.

The Secret Service is leading a full review of how the substance got into the West Wing, law enforcement officials said, including examining cameras and entrance logs to determine who had access to the space. Officials caution this will be a challenging investigation, and while there are some cameras in the West Wing, it's unclear if anyone was captured on those cameras with the bag of cocaine. White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed to reporters on July 5, 2023, that there had been tours during the weekend the cocaine was discovered at the White House, including tours held on the same day. "Where this was discovered is a heavily traveled area where many White House -- West Wing, I should be even more specific, West Wing visitors come through this particular area," Jean-Pierre said. After that news broke, social media posts about the discovery rapidly spread, with various degrees of legitimacy. We found posts on Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, and Facebook making various claims about where the illicit substance was found and to whom it allegedly belonged.

When the unknown powdered substance was discovered, sections of the White House were evacuated as the Washington Fire Department was called to the scene and performed a field test that identified the substance as cocaine. The sample was sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the Secret Service statement said. That testing confirmed it was cocaine and determined it was not a biological threat like anthrax or ricin.

Secret Service closes investigation into cocaine found at White House with no suspect identified - CBS News

Secret Service closes investigation into cocaine found at White House with no suspect identified.

Posted: Thu, 13 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

President Biden and his family were away at Camp David when a uniformed Secret Service agent found the substance during a patrol of the West Wing around 6 p.m. On Sunday, the person said, prompting a brief shutdown of some of the White House campus as response workers assessed whether the substance was hazardous. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter Wednesday asking Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for more information about the investigation. Following the discovery, safety closures were implemented around the White House.

The substance — which tested positive for cocaine on a preliminary field test, according to a source familiar with the investigation — led to a brief evacuation inside the White House on Sunday night. The Secret Service led the investigation into how the cocaine ended up at the White House and said as part of its review, it would look over surveillance footage and entrance logs to determine who had access to the area where it was found. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters that officials explained during the briefing that the White House was "fully cooperative" with the Secret Service's probe, and said he is satisfied the agency conducted a "thorough investigation." Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi said the agency determined that interviewing all 500 people could be a strain on resources, might infringe upon civil liberties and would likely be fruitless without corresponding physical evidence tying any person to the drugs. CBS News, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the cocaine was found in a facility used by White House staff and guests to store phones. A baggie that was confirmed to contain cocaine was found in the guest lobby of the West Wing on Sunday evening, an agency spokesman said.