Contrary to earlier reports, the cocaine found within the White House on Sunday was located in a cubby beside the West Executive entrance and within a working area of the West Wing.
Initial reports suggested that the controlled substance was found in a locker in the West Wing lobby, where tour guests often leave personal belongings such as cell phones. However, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the cocaine was actually discovered by Secret Service in the area between the West Executive entrance foyer and a lower level lobby, one floor below the main West Wing offices and on the same floor as the situation room.
Official vehicles such as the vice president’s limo park outside the West Executive entrance.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed that the initially reported location where the cocaine was supposed to have been found is heavily trafficked by visitors. It’s unclear whether the newly reported location is accessible to visitors.
“What I wanted to be very clear is that this is a heavily, heavily trafficked, heavily traveled, to be more accurate, area of the campus of the White House,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is where visitors to the West Wing come through.”
“This is under the purview of the Secret Service,” she added. “They are currently investigating what happened over the weekend. So I would have to refer you to the Secret Service, the Secret Service on all of this.”
Trump has alleged that the cocaine belongs to Hunter Biden, who has a well-known substance abuse problem.
“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,” the former president wrote on Truth Social, his social-media platform.
However, his one-time press secretary, Kayleigh McEany, dismissed such allegations. “For it to be Hunter Biden, he left on Friday; he was at Camp David. There’s no way. It’s inconceivable to think cocaine could sit for a 72-hour period, so I would rule him out at this point,” McEany said on Fox News on Thursday morning.
On Sunday, an unknown “powdery substance” was found in the working area of the West Wing within the White House complex.
A local Washington, D.C., firefighter first reported over the radio that a preliminary field test confirmed the presence of cocaine. “We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride,” the firefighter radioed after searching the White House.
“Bag it up and take it out,” he added.
The Secret Service initially did not corroborate the findings and could only note that a search of the property had been conducted.
“On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area. The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous,” the agency’s Chief of Communications, Anthony Guglielmi, told National Review in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
The following day, the Secret Service confirmed that a test conducted on the substance was, in fact, cocaine.
The culprit, however, is not likely to be found, a law enforcement official involved in the matter told Politico.
“It’s gonna be very difficult for us to do that because of where it was,” the official said. “Even if there were surveillance cameras, unless you were waving it around, it may not have been caught. It’s a bit of a thoroughfare. People walk by there all the time.”