Donald Trump insists that the Secret Service was able to find out who brought cocaine into the White House – despite the agency closing the investigation last week unsolved.
The former president said the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) is filled with ‘smart’ people and said it ‘impossible’ that they haven’t found the culprit.
An agent found a bag with less than a gram of cocaine in the cubby of a cell phone lockbox in the West Wing on July 2, leading to a hazmat evacuation of the White House. Secret Service launched an investigation to find who brought the illicit drug into one of the most secure locations in the U.S.
USSS briefed Congress on Thursday and said they would be closing the investigation even though they did not figure out who brought cocaine onto the premises.
Donald Trump insisted Secret Service does know who brought cocaine into the White House despite the agency closing its investigation into the matter just 11 days after the incident without finding a culprit
Biden critics immediately jumped to their own conclusions, claiming President Biden’s recovering addict son Hunter (left) is to blame for bringing the illicit drug into the White House
‘You know, I’ve gotten to know the Secret Service really well, and I can’t speak more highly of people – these are incredible people,’ Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Sunday.
‘And I believe that they know everything,’ he insisted. ‘They’re really smart, and really good at what they do.’
‘I don’t think it’s possible for bags of cocaine to be left in a certain area, by the Situation Room – I’m not talking about, you know, five blocks away. The Situation Room – where you decide on war, where you decide on nuclear…’
Critics of Joe Biden immediately jumped to their own conclusions, claiming that the president’s recovering addict son Hunter, 52, was responsible for the drugs.
USSS told lawmakers that they narrowed down the suspect list to about 500 people and said it would be too difficult and a waste of resources to find the culprit, therefore they would close the investigation for a ‘lack of evidence’ in a stunning move just 11 days after the drugs were abandoned in a West Wing locker.
Furious Republicans called the shuttering of the probe ‘ridiculous’ and accused the Biden administration of a ‘cover-up,’ with agents unable to find a suspect despite poring over surveillance footage for more than a week
‘The FBI has tremendous problems of credibility, the DOJ is weaponized like I’ve never seen before,’ Trump said in an interview aired on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures program.
‘I mean, they come after me on boxes and they can’t find drugs,’ he lamented, linking his classified documents case to the most recent White House scandal.
‘Do you know how many cameras they have opposite the front door of the Situation Room where these drugs were?’ he questioned. ‘They know who this was, they know the person. It’s impossible – how could they not know the person?’
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett said agents ‘just decided it’s just some weekend visitor’ and chalked up the entire investigation as ‘another coverup’ by the Biden White House.
‘It’s bogus’ the Tennessee congressman added. ‘That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’
Trump agrees, claiming that Biden is corrupt.
‘The last few weeks I’ve been very nasty and very tough and very truthful. He’s a corrupt man, he’s a corrupt president, he’s grossly incompetent.’
!['I can't speak more highly of [Secret Service],' Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Sunday. 'And I believe that they know everything. They're really smart, and really good at what they do'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/07/16/20/73276081-12304659-image-a-2_1689536692734.jpg)
‘I can’t speak more highly of [Secret Service],’ Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Sunday. ‘And I believe that they know everything. They’re really smart, and really good at what they do’
The location of where the cocaine was found changed three time before USSS briefed Congress on Thursday and said the suspect list was narrowed to about 500 people
Democrats said drug testing all of the potential 500 plus culprits would violate their ‘civil liberties’ and insisted the cocaine was found in an area used by guests, not members of the Biden family or those with security clearances.
Trump said only people with ‘strong passes’ and family members of White House staff with offices are able to get through the doors where the lockboxes are located.
Since July 2 the Secret Service had been poring over surveillance footage from cameras stationed all over the White House, but still hasn’t managed to find a culprit.
Meanwhile, Biden was able to avoid the latest scandal by escaping to Europe for meetings with foreign leaders.
There were no fingerprints or other DNA found on the container holding the cocaine, according to the Secret Service. And there was less than a gram of the illicit drug in the ‘dime-sized’ zipper-lock baggie.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the Secret Service officials informed lawmakers during Thursday’s briefing that they narrowed down the list of suspected culprits to about 500 people.
‘Have they drug tested this list of 500 potential suspects that brought an illegal substance – the drug cocaine – into the White House,’ Greene told reporters after the briefing. ‘Their answer was no, and that they’re unwilling to do so.’
Without any direct answers from the USSS or the Biden administration on the cocaine discovery with nearly two weeks to investigate the matter, members of Congress demanded briefings.
Trump-era CBP Director and longtime FBI agent Mark Morgan told DailyMail.com last week that the case is ‘straightforward’ and could be solved in the matter of 30 minutes.
Morgan and Rep. Burchett separately noted that there are cameras everywhere with facial recognition technology that could provide answers to who brought the cocaine into the White House.
It’s unlikely Republican members of Congress will be happy with USSS closing the investigation without finding out who is responsible for bringing the illicit drug into the West Wing.
‘Just left the most ridiculous meeting of all time with the Secret Service on the cocaine that was found in the White House,’ Rep. Burchett said in a video he recorded walking through Congress after Thursday’s briefing.
‘It turns out – they don’t know who did it,’ he said. ‘The investigation is going to be over at the end of the week, and they’re not going to find out who did it. And that’s basically it.’
‘Another coverup,’ the lawmaker added. ‘You know, it’s the most secure building in the entire world… Nobody, not even the press, goes in there without them knowing.’
He called the outcome a ‘bad look on the Secret Service and a horrible look on this White House.’
The substance was found Sunday, July 2, leading to a hazmat evacuation of the White House while President Joe Biden and his family were in Camp David for the long holiday weekend.
Now, 14 days after the discovery, Congress is no closer to knowing how the drug made it into one of the most secure places in the U.S. – and USSS doesn’t plan to provide any definitive answers.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair James Comer wrote to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle last week requesting a briefing by July 14, which occurred Thursday morning.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas also called for a briefing and pressed Cheatle for information in a public letter. The senator’s office, when reached by DailyMail.com, said that they have not yet received a response from Cheatle.
The cocaine discovery location changed three times since its discovery – first in the library, then in a west wing work area and finally in a cell phone lockbox.
For nearly two weeks from discovery to briefing, there were no signs from officials of who the culprit is that brought the illicit drug onto the premises and the Biden administration continued to brush-off questions on the matter.
Biden critics, however, jumped to their own conclusion, claiming that Hunter is to blame for bringing cocaine into the White House.
Secret Service and administration officials remained hush-hush on details of the discovery – only fueling trolls who want to peg the incident on Hunter Biden.
A full statement from the USSS was released Thursday following the briefing that gave a detailed rundown of what the agency did to investigate the matter.
But it concluded by saying it would close the investigation without finding who brought the cocaine into the White House.
‘There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area,’ the statement claims.
‘Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered.’
The statement concluded with: ‘At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence.’
Republicans and other critics are likely to call BS on this.
Several former officials familiar with the spot where the cocaine was found say that there are cameras, guest book logs and security at all times in the West Wing where the cocaine was left.
The evidence, Morgan told DailyMail.com last week, would absolutely be available to identify the culprit in a priority case like this one.
