Photos of cocaine found in a phone locker in President Joe Biden’s White House this summer can be revealed by DailyMail.com for the first time.
The Secret Service included images of the bag of white powder that was found in a cubby hole used to store personal belongings near the White House’s West Executive entrance in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Cocaine was found in locker No. 50 on Sunday, July 2 while the Biden family – including son Hunter – was spending the weekend away at Camp David ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
The discovery prompted an evacuation of the West Wing and street closures surrounding the White House and then triggered an 11-day investigation once the substance was identified as the illicit drug.
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com also show the Deputy Director of the FBI Paul Abbate was involved in the investigation, which clouded the Biden administration in scandal this summer.
DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal the first photos released of the bag of cocaine found in the White House on July 2
Less than a gram of the drug was found in a dime-sized ziplock baggie among storage cubbies located inside the White House’s West Executive entrance
Cubbie No. 50 was where less than a gram of cocaine was found at the White House on July 2, which prompted a Hazmat situation and then an 11 day investigation
Hunter Biden (left) and President Joe Biden (right) were at Camp David on Sunday, July 2 when the cocaine was discovered
The set of lockers near the White House’s West Executive entrance where the cocaine was found on July 2
The Secret Service closed the investgation in less than two weeks due to a ‘lack of evidence.’
The list of suspects had been narrowed down to 500, but security footage wasn’t able to determine the owner as cameras do not face the locker area.
It is unclear if any suspects were interviewed during the short investigation – and whether lockers are assigned to specific personnel.
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com include updates in real time, like the description that a ‘1” by 1” bag of white powdery substance was found near where pass holders put their phones when going into the’ – with the location redacted.
Secret Service officials noted that the president was at Camp David and Vice President Kamala Harris was in Los Angeles at the time of the discovery.
‘There is no reported media coverage of this incident at the time,’ an initial Secret Service document says.
Once initial news reports came out about the incident, the documents show Secret Service officials having back and forths with reporters over whether the powder was cocaine.
Secret Service also had to set the record straight on where it was found, as early reports about the incident said the cocaine was discovered in the White House library, then the West Wing lobby and then finally the cubbies by the West Executive entrance.
An initial test conducted by D.C. fire’s Hazmat team came back positive for opioids and amphetamines, while the Secret Service’s first tests were inconclusive.
The FBI then became involved and sent the sample to a lab at Quantico.
Initial reports about the cocaine discovery said it was found in the White House library, then the West Wing lobby and then finally the cubbies near the West Executive entrance
The Secret Service provided new images connected to the cocaine investigation in response to DailyMail.com’s Freedom of Information Act request, including this notebook where someone had written that an ‘unknown powder’ was discovered somewhere in the ‘West Wing’
Behind the scenes there appeared to be tension over how the substance was being investigated.
A redacted email on July 10 was headed ‘Clear the Air.’
In it, an official wrote that the substance was not at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center – which defends the U.S. against biological threats – and instead at Quantico.
The official wrote: ‘Special Agent XXX is still waiting for the final lab report, and authorization to have the item sent back to DC from his higher-ups, who are supposedly talking with USSS (Secret Service) 8th floor staff.’
Documents show a more thorough test came back positive for cocaine, sodium bicarbonat and caffeine.
However, fingerprints and other DNA evidence on the ‘dime-sized’ zipper-lock bag wasn’t able to be used to find the culprit.
‘Ownership or persons responsible for the initial placement of the item within the West Wing of the White House Complex on July 2, 2023, could not be determined utilizing DNA or latent print retrieval methods,’ said a Secret Service statement on July 13.
The Secret Service said the cocaine was sent for ‘destruction’ on July 14, a day after the probe wrapped up.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s initial response to questions about whether the cocaine could belong to a Biden came in the form of pointing out that they weren’t home.
The new materials also included images of the White House’s West Executive entrance, which was near where the cocaine was found on July 2
An investigator holds up the test used to determine that the substance was cocaine and not something more dangerous like Anthrax
The Secret Service documents provided to DailyMail.com included this one from Thermo Scientific, which determined that the white powder was predominantly cocaine
She then lashed out at a reporter who asked – five days after the discovery – if she could say ‘once and for all’ that the baggie didn’t belong to a Biden family member.
‘You know, there has been some irresponsible reporting about the family and so I’ve got to call that out here,’ the press secretary said. ‘And I have been very clear.’
‘I was clear two days ago … the Biden family was not here, they were not here, they were at Camp David,’ she continued. ‘They were not here Friday, they were not here Saturday, they were not here Sunday. They were not even here Monday. They came back here on Tuesday.’
The questions were asked because Hunter Biden wrote an entire memoir about his battle with drug and alcohol abuse, which included descriptions of heavy cocaine use.
First daughter Ashley Biden has also struggled with drug use and been to a rehab facility.
The president ignored shouted questions about the cocaine discovery on several occasions.
In the days following the discovery, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suggested a construction worker could have brought in the cocaine, as it was found near the Situation Room, which was undergoing renovations at the time.
‘I would make a point about the Situation Room because I think there’s been a lot questionable reporting on this,’ Sullivan said at a July 7 briefing. ‘The Situation Room is not in use and has not been in use for months because it is currently under construction.’
‘We are using an alternative Situation Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, so the only people coming in and going out of the Sit Room in this period have been workers who are getting it ready to go,’ he added.