Investigation Into Cocaine Found In WH Ended Without Finding Suspect

The Secret Service announced on Thursday, July 13, that it has concluded its investigation into how cocaine got to the White House without naming a suspect.

The agency’s announcement followed congressional Republicans’ claims that they were informed in a secret Secret Service briefing that the investigation into the cocaine discovered in the White House West Wing earlier this month was coming to an end without a conclusion as to who was responsible.

“There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area,” the agency said in a lengthy statement.

“Without physical evidence, 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. At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence.”

The container was “subjected to advanced fingerprint and DNA analysis,” according to the Secret Service, who also stated that the FBI crime lab had examined it.

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“The investigation included a methodical review of security systems and protocols,” the agency statement said.

“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.

“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,” the statement said.

Republicans claimed they saw the development as a “failure” of the agency after Thursday’s closed-door briefing for members and staff of the House Oversight Committee. They claimed the briefers claimed the probe was coming to an end.

“And to say that they don’t know who it is, to me, somebody should lose their job over this. This thing’s a trash can. Everybody wants to pick and choose. They need to shut the whole thing down put the garden hose to it and clean it out,” Rep. Tim Burchett said, adding that the Secret Service told members in the briefing the bag contained less than a gram of cocaine.

During the weekend that cocaine was discovered, members claimed the Secret Service told them they had reduced the list of suspects to 500 people. They added that this group was made up of both staff members and tourists who were on a tour. Tours of the West Wing are by invitation only.

Members reported hearing that guests are often instructed to store their belongings and cell phones in one of the 182 lockers that are located on the wall. They claimed to have been informed that locker 50 had the cocaine.

Lauren Boebert of the GOP claimed that the locker’s key was gone.

“There’s no collateral system in place. There’s no assigning of the lockers. And this was one of the concerns I raised to Secret Service. We need to be able to track individuals and which locker they are using,” she said.