Cocaine found near Situation Room, WH can’t rule out Hunter

The bag of cocaine found in the West Wing of the White House on Sunday was located near the Situation Room and one floor below the Oval Office — as a Biden administration spokesman declined to rule out first son Hunter Biden as the source of the illicit drug.

The dime-size drug bag was found Sunday night in an entrance area cubby located between a foyer and a lobby area, near where some official vehicles park — such as the vice presidential limo or SUV, NBC News reported.

An official close to the matter previously told The Post that the cubby is used by both White House employees and visitors to store phones and personal items that are not taken into other parts of the complex.

The basement entrance is one of two to the West Wing and is located on the same level as the Situation Room, executive offices and White House Mess. The other entrance, located on the first floor, leads to a more formal lobby steps from the Roosevelt Room, Cabinet Room and Oval Office.


A general view of the West Wing
A Secret Service investigation is taking every step necessary to find the person responsible for leaving a bag of cocaine in the White House this week.
REUTERS

A cocaine bag
“I would do a whole interview on everyone who had access to those rooms. I’m sure there are key fobs to that room,” an NYPD detective told The Post.
Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Secret Service probe into who left the illicit white powder could wrap up as soon as Monday, NBC also reported. The protective agency is scrutinizing visitor logs and security footage to determine who may have left the cocaine in what the White House has described as a “highly trafficked” area of the executive mansion.

“We are doing everything possible to attempt to identify who may have brought this item into the White House,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post on Thursday. “And that includes every resource, that includes every option available to us or to the federal government.”

According to multiple reports, that includes testing the bag for fingerprints as well as DNA evidence. Guglielmi declined to comment further about what he called an open investigation.


A Secret Service agent watches as Marine One with President Joe Biden abroad lifts off from the South Lawn of the White House
“We are doing everything possible to attempt to identify who may have brought this item into the White House,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post on Thursday.
AP

“I would do a whole interview on everyone who had access to those rooms. I’m sure there are key fobs to that room,” an anonymous NYPD detective told The Post. “They would interview everyone and go from there. I’m sure there are cameras and everything there.”

“They could get DNA from it, but they have to get a hit,” the detective added, referring to the perpetrator needing to be already present in law enforcement data systems from some prior interaction.

The White House has declined to make substantive comments on the investigation, preferring to point reporters to the Secret Service.


DC Fire and EMS
The discovery forced a brief evacuation Sunday night after which a DC hazmat team determined the powdery substance was cocaine.
AP

On Thursday, administration spokesman Andrew Bates was asked about a post by former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, in which the 77-year-old asked: “Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden.”

“Are you willing to say that that’s not the case, that they don’t belong to them?” a reporter queried.

“I don’t have a response to that because we have to be careful about the Hatch Act,” answered Bates, referencing a federal law preventing executive branch employees from political activity. It’s unclear how the act applied to the simple request that Bates confirm the drug did not belong to either the president or his son — who has acknowledged a past crack cocaine addition in his memoir.


From left to right, President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, first son Hunter Biden and first grandson Beau Biden Jr.
President Biden and the first lady were gone during the incident, having left for Camp David on Friday with first son Hunter Biden, who has admitted to crack cocaine abuse in the past.
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Later in the gaggle with reporters on board Air Force One en route to South Carolina, Bates was asked: “If the Secret Service is able to determine the individual responsible, will the Secret Service and the — and — will the White House commit to transparency in this, in making that information public?”

“I’m going to defer to the Secret Service professionals who are carrying this out,” Bates answered. “I’m just not going to engage on hypotheticals about it.”

The discovery by a Secret Service agent patrolling the West Wing forced a brief evacuation, after which a DC hazmat team determined the powdery substance was cocaine. An additional test by investigators on Wednesday confirmed the drug’s presence.

President Biden and the first lady were gone at the time of the incident, having left for Camp David on Friday with Hunter.


The White House
“The president thinks this is incredibly important to get to the bottom of,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
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The Biden trio, along with other family members, returned to Washington from the presidential retreat on Tuesday for Independence Day festivities.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that staffers had led West Wing tours on Friday, June 30; Saturday, July 1; and Sunday, July 2. She declined to say how many individuals attended each.

Some officials have cautioned that the culprit is unlikely to be conclusively identified due to the sheer number of people who pass through the area on a daily basis.

According to White House visitor logs reviewed by The Post, more than 4,000 entries for West Wing tours were recorded in March, the most recent month for which records are available.