WASHINGTON — The mystery of who brought cocaine into the White House remains unsolved. The Secret Service investigation concluded with no usable forensic or video evidence to identify the individual responsible, three Secret Service officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News.
The small plastic bag containing a powdery substance, found in a White House storage cubicle on a Sunday night earlier this month, has undergone advanced testing and has been examined at two different federal laboratories, but has not been found. No usable fingerprints or DNA were detected. the officials said.
The Secret Service received the results of tests conducted by the FBI on Wednesday, «which did not develop latent fingerprints and there was insufficient DNA for investigative comparisons,» according to an official Secret Service statement released Thursday. Security camera footage was reviewed but, according to the statement, “there was no surveillance video footage to produce investigative leads.”
Without that kind of physical evidence, the investigation has run out of steam.
«The investigation will not be able to pinpoint a person of interest out of the hundreds of individuals who passed through the lobby where the cocaine was discovered,» Secret Service officials admitted in the statement.
A source familiar with the investigation told NBC News that «the leading theory is that the substance belonged to one of the hundreds of visitors who traveled through the building over the weekend.»
Secret Service representatives are briefing members of the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees on Capitol Hill Thursday after lawmakers requested answers about the investigation and security protocols at the White House.
This unusual breach of White House security was discovered on July 2 when a uniformed Secret Service officer spotted a small plastic bag in a storage cubby at the West Executive Avenue entrance on the ground floor. Those storage cubbies are used by staff, contractors, military personnel and some visitors to leave electronic devices and personal items that are not allowed in some areas of the West Wing. The lobby is near the Situation Room, which is currently out of action for renovations; an alternate secure meeting room is being used for classified briefings during construction.
Before the investigation was concluded, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters: «The only people who have been in and out of the Sit Room this period have been workers getting it ready to go.»
The entrance is near where some vehicles are parked, such as the vice president’s limousine or van. It is one floor below the West Wing main offices and on the same floor as the Situation Room and a dining room.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the location involved as «very busy» and said that «visitors to the West Wing pass through this particular area.» Jean-Pierre said staff-led walkthroughs were conducted on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the drugs were found.
The congressional briefing on the incident will take place behind closed doors Thursday morning and comes in response to a request last week by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who sent a letter asking Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for a staff-level briefing on the investigation by July 14.
«This alarming development requires the Committee to evaluate the White House’s security practices and determine what failures led to the evacuation of the building and the discovery of the illegal substance,» the letter said. «The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in White House history.»
Comer added: «This incident has raised additional concerns with the Committee regarding the level of security being maintained at the White House.»
When the unknown powdery substance was first discovered, sections of the White House were evacuated as the District of Columbia Fire Department was called to the scene and conducted a field test that identified the substance as cocaine. The sample was sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Countermeasures and Analysis Center in Fort Detrick, Maryland, according to the Secret Service statement. That test confirmed that it was cocaine and determined that it was not a biological threat like anthrax or ricin.
Additional tests were carried out to check the chemical composition of the dust, the statement continued. Later, at the FBI crime lab, the substance and plastic bag underwent advanced testing that included a process called vacuum metal deposition (VMD), which is a technique in which a thin film of metal is applied to the sample to try to develop a reverse latent. printed, said a Secret Service source familiar with the investigation.
In a separate tip, the Secret Service reviewed entry logs and video that investigators say they covered several days before the item was found. They created an index of several hundred people who might have entered the area, according to the agency. But that work couldn’t be used to connect any dots. Officials said that without usable forensic findings, «the investigation cannot compare evidence against a known group of individuals.»
White House officials noted that the Biden family was not in the White House when the cocaine was discovered; the president and his family had gone to Camp David for the holiday weekend on Friday and did not return to the White House until Tuesday, July 4, after the cocaine was discovered. At a press conference, Jean-Pierre said: «The president thinks it’s incredibly important to get to the bottom of the matter.»
But the search for answers is over without finding a suspect.
In a review of recent years, the Secret Service found two incidents in which uniformed agents from the division detected a small amount of marijuana and a report was filed, Secret Service officials said. No charges were filed because the amounts were legal under Washington, DC law at the time. People were notified not to bring marijuana onto the White House campus, officials said.