House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) fired off a letter to the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Friday, demanding to be briefed on the White House security failures that led to the “unacceptable and shameful” discovery of cocaine in the West Wing Sunday.
In his letter to USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle, Comer said the “alarming development requires the Committee to assess White House security practices and determine whose failures led to an evacuation of the building and finding of the illegal substance.”
“Congress funds White House security procedures & @GOPoversight has oversight jurisdiction over Secret Service operations,” Comer noted in a tweet.
🚨The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in the White House’s history.
Congress funds White House security procedures & @GOPoversight has oversight jurisdiction over Secret Service operations.
I’m requesting a briefing.👇 pic.twitter.com/5ORRhE7bey
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) July 7, 2023
The dime-size bag of cocaine was allegedly found in a “secure, limited access place” in the West-Wing near the Situation Room on Sunday.
“According to a senior law-enforcement official, the cocaine was found in a storage facility that is ‘routinely used by White House staff and guests to store cell phones,’” Comer noted in his letter. “According to reports, USSS agents discovered a suspicious white powder inside the White House, prompting an evacuation of White House staff and personnel.”
The Kentucky congressman added the “incident has raised additional concerns with the Committee regarding the level of security maintained at the White House.”
The Bidens were not onsite at the time as they spent the July Fourth holiday weekend at Camp David with family, including their scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden, who is a former(?) crack-cocaine addict.
Details about where the stash was found have changed multiple times throughout the week.
Originally, the drug was said to have been discovered on the White House grounds. Then, an audio recording from the Hazmat team sent to the White House on Sunday to investigate the substance indicated it was located in the library. Next, the White House said it was found in the highly trafficked West Wing lobby.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday strongly suggested that a member of the public on a tour may have left the drug in a “heavily-traveled area” of the West Wing.
“This is a heavily, heavily trafficked – heavily traveled to be more accurate – area of the campus of the White House. And it is where visitors to the West Wing come,” Jean-Pierre insisted. “I just don’t have anything else—I’m not going to speculate on who it was.”
Finally, on Thursday, NBC News reported that the contraband was found in a cubby near the “much more secure” West Executive entrance—not the West Wing lobby.
According to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “average people just can’t get in” where the cocaine baggie was found.
Biden officials told reporters this week that the culprit may never be identified because the coke was found in a heavily trafficked area.
However, former Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald disagreed with that assessment, telling Fox News that “I don’t think it’s heavily traversed over a holiday weekend.”
The Secret Service has reportedly been conducting DNA and fingerprint tests on White House staffers who were on the premises over the holiday weekend.
“My guess is the Secret Service has a fairly good idea of who may be involved in this situation. They definitely have an idea of who was on the campus that weekend,” said McDonald, who was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Vice Presidential Division during Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President.
In an interview with Just the News, former FBI agent and acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection Agency Mark Morgan said the White House cocaine mystery should take “about 30 minutes to solve.”
“I was there countless times, I put my cell phone in that exact box that they’re talking about. I know it well. Oftentimes, there is a marine that’s standing there. This literally should take them about 30 minutes to solve,” Morgan said on Wednesday.
According to former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, the culprit has to be a member of the Biden family because everyone else has to go through a strict security checkpoint. “It had to be one of the protectees—there’s no other explanation,” Bongino declared in a video posted on Rumble. “That would never have gotten through the checkpoint. Not a chance in Hell.”
Comer demanded that the USSS provide a staff level briefing on the matter by July 14, 2023.
The investigation is expected to be completed by Monday, July 10.
Update:
When asked Friday whether she could answer once and for all whether the cocaine belonged to someone in the Biden family, White House Press Sec. Karine Jean Pierre spent a minute and a half filibustering to avoid answering the straight-forward yes-or-no question.
Karine Jean-Pierre's newest answer on the White House cocaine scandal: "There has been some irresponsible reporting about the [Biden] family" pic.twitter.com/cSTxpnbune
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 7, 2023
Oh no, the strongly worded letter! Now we’re gonna get some resolution.