Cocaine found in the White House was in a different location than previously reported, sources say
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On the tours, guests are shown the ground floor and the first floor of the West Wing. They are able to peek inside the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room, areas that tend to be a source of great interest for many visitors. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, also declined to discuss the incident on Wednesday, referring questions to the Secret Service, which is overseeing the investigation. Julia Ainsley is homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for the NBC News Investigative Unit. An initial test of the substance conducted by the District of Columbia Fire Department soon after it was found indicated it was cocaine, and the additional test took place Tuesday night. 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.
Secret Service ends White House cocaine investigation with no leads
"This is a heavily, heavily traveled, to be more accurate, area of the campus of the White House," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. The discovery prompted an evacuation of the premises as officials sought to determine whether the substance was hazardous. The bag was found in a vestibule leading to the lobby area of the West Wing entrance to the White House, the Secret Service said.
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The people were notified that they could not bring the marijuana to the White House campus, the officials said. On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons. Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. While awaiting the FBl's results, the Secret Service investigation into how this item entered the White House continued.
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In reality, the cocaine was discovered in a common area of the West Wing, according to several reputable publications, including AP and CBS News. According to Reuters, the West Wing includes the Oval Office, cabinet room and work space for presidential staff. 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.
House Oversight chief seeks information from Secret Service about cocaine found in White House - CBS News
House Oversight chief seeks information from Secret Service about cocaine found in White House.
Posted: Fri, 07 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. White House staffers frequently give guests tours of the West Wing, often at night and over the weekend. Guests must pass through security before entering the White House complex and then are asked to leave phones in small cubbies. Without that kind of physical evidence, the investigation has run out of road. Following the discovery, safety closures were implemented around the White House.
Investigation
The discovery of a powdery white substance on Sunday evening prompted a brief evacuation of the premises. Subsequent testing confirmed it was cocaine, said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service. The agency, along with the FBI, tested the packet to determine it was cocaine and looked for any fingerprints or DNA evidence. Video footage of the area where the baggie was found also provided no evidence to narrow the possible suspects beyond a list of roughly 500 staff members and visitors who passed through during a weekend earlier this month.
He also asked half a dozen questions about access to the White House, other instances of illegal drugs' being found in the complex and security procedures, requesting answers by July 14. The cocaine was found on July 2 in a vestibule off the lobby of a lower-level West Wing entrance, stashed in a cubbyhole near the Situation Room, where officials store cellphones during meetings. News publications like CNN, The Hill, and the AP reported officials were working to identify who was responsible for bringing the substance into the federal building. According to the AP, Secret Service agents discovered the substance while doing a routine security scan of the building. NBC reported the drug was in a small, zippered bag, and that it was unclear how long it had been in the White House.
News
President Biden was briefed on the investigation and said it is “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to determine how it got there. Garda Thomas McDaniel told the prosecution that when gardaí arrived at the house with a warrant, they found a large amount of drugs paraphernalia including weighing scales. In that indictment, Trump is charged with 34 felonies, each predicated on his having allegedly falsified business records. The White House "is subject to rigorous guidelines that include drug testing, and so we will take any action that is appropriate and warranted, pending the outcome of the Secret Service," Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that she wouldn't "get into hypotheticals." The substance was found Sunday evening in a small zippered bag in a highly trafficked part of the West Wing and prompted a brief evacuation, a Secret Service official said. The Secret Service is running the investigation, which will include consulting cameras and entrance logs, the official added.
The entrance is near where some vehicles, like the vice president’s limo or SUV, park. It is one floor below the main West Wing offices and on the same floor as the Situation Room and a dining area. 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. Fire hazmat personnel who responded to the scene Sunday night, a first responder can be heard saying the substance tested positive for "cocaine hydrochloride." The message was posted by the website OpenMHz, which records and archives radio dispatches by police, fire and EMS agencies. Both of these analyses were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime laboratory given their expertise in this area and independence from the investigation. 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.
For instance, the below-displayed post claimed the cocaine was found in an area often occupied by U.S. President Joe Biden, while other posts asserted that the drug was left behind by his son, Hunter Biden. The cocaine, contained in a small Ziploc bag, was found in a cubby used by visitors to store cellphones and other personal items before entering the West Wing. 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." A formal laboratory test of a white powder found in a “highly trafficked” area of the White House has been confirmed as cocaine, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed official with knowledge of the investigation. Officials are investigating how a small bag of cocaine ended up in the White House on Sunday, when it was found on the ground floor of the West Wing near where visitors taking tours are instructed to leave their cellphones, according to three people familiar with the investigation.
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. President Biden was at Camp David over the weekend and did not return to the White House until Tuesday morning for a series of events celebrating Independence Day.
White House Cocaine Probe Ends, Wild Speculation Doesn't - U.S. News & World Report
White House Cocaine Probe Ends, Wild Speculation Doesn't.
Posted: Thu, 13 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The West Wing is often frequented by visitors on staff-led tours on evenings and weekends. The Situation Room itself is being renovated, and has not being used for months. 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." "It's deeply frustrating," Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters.
This response was designed to ensure that the found substance was not a chemical or radiological material that threatened the security of the White House. As such, the substance was field tested and preliminarily determined to not be a hazardous compound. According to court documents, on Jan. 31, 2023, Alvarado attempted to depart the United States through the Hidalgo Port of Entry driving a Ford F-150. However, authorities noticed the bed of the pickup truck was abnormally elevated and referred the vehicle to secondary inspection. A search resulted in the discovery of 33 AK-47 variant rifles, three AR-15 rifles, a .22-caliber long rifle, two .45-caliber handguns and 39 ammunition magazines.
CNN first reported that the investigation had concluded without finding a suspect. The U.S. Secret Service takes its mission to protect U.S. leaders, facilities, and events seriously and we are constantly adapting to meet the needs of the current and future security environment. The substance was located inside a receptacle used to temporarily store electronic and personal devices prior to entering the West Wing. Biden and his family left for Camp David on Friday and returned to the White House on Tuesday.
Agents had gathered the names of several hundred people who may have passed by that area. There wasn't enough of either on the bag to draw any conclusions, the Secret Service said in a statement. At the time of publication, there was no credible evidence to link the drug found in the White House to any individual or group, much less the president's son. 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.
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