Judicial Watch
For nearly two weeks this summer the White House engaged in federal law enforcement in an investigation of a bag of cocaine discovered in the West Wing.
We received 112 pages of Secret Service records from our July 13 FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that include photos and communications regarding the discovery.
The DHS withheld 34 pages in their entirety under the “foreseeable harm” standard, which states “the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption …” and/or the Privacy Act.
Our FOIA request sought records about:
A white powdery substance found inside the West Wing of the White House on July 2, 2023, determined through testing to be the illegal drug cocaine.
The cocaine was found in a West Wing phone locker while the Biden family was away for the Fourth of July weekend at Camp David.
The investigative photos include the bag of cocaine found near the White House’s West Executive entrance.
A Secret Service “crime scene examination section evidence report” indicates that the photos were taken on July 2.
The records include a July 2 email sent by a Secret Service public information officer whose name is redacted regarding a “suspicious substance at [the] White House:”
A 1″ by 1″ bag of white powdery substance was found near where pass holders put their phones when going into the [redacted] here. UD [Uniformed Division] Crime Scene tested it for drugs but came back inconclusive. TSD couldn’t determine what it was. Closures were made for caution.
DCFEMS [DC Fire & Emergency Medical Services] HAZMAT is on scene as of this email.
An incident report written on July 2 regarding a “suspicious package/incident” details the activities undertaken by the Secret Service Crime Scene Search Unit, the DC Hazmat team and the FBI’s WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] Directorate in handling the then-undetermined substance.
An additional July 2 incident report indicates the investigation lasted 12 days and that “cocaine and sodium bicarbonate were identified within the Item 1-1 powder” and that DNA “test results did not identify an individual responsible for the placement of the item within the West Wing of the White House Complex.” The report states that on July 14 the cocaine was “placed on the property/evidence book for ‘destruction.’”
A July 3 email from a person in the Technical Security Division whose name is redacted states:
Starting time Approx 1745 [5:45 p.m.] UD [Uniform Division] advised of a small ziploc bag approximately less than 1″ in by 1″ in the cell phone lockers by [redacted] was confident it was drug related thus the phone call to UD CRIME SCENE.
A July 10 email indicates that no identifiable prints were found on the bag.
On July 13, the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Secret Service Foreign Missions Branch sent a report to the Uniform Division, indicating that the bag of “unknown white powdery substance” was identified as cocaine by the FBI laboratory.
These photos and documents detail the disruption and expense of the Biden White House cocaine scandal. Few Americans buy that the Biden administration can’t figure out who brought this cocaine into the West Wing. Indeed, the lack of documentation about the “investigation” of who was responsible is striking.
