The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House and has been unable to identify a suspect, it said in a statement quoted by CNN on Thursday.
Secret Service officials combed through “security systems” and indexed “several hundred individuals” who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, according to the statement.
The Secret Service said FBI lab results from the packaging found “insufficient DNA” and could not retrieve any fingerprints.
“Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals,” the statement said, according to CNN.
Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.
“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 agency’s statement said.
“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. At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence.”
A source familiar with the investigation told CNN that the leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones inside those cubbies.
“We’ve been briefed by Secret Service on the outcome of their investigation and are reviewing the information,” White House principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said in a statement.
Former US President Donald Trump lashed out at President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and the media after the cocaine was discovered.
“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,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“But watch, the Fake News Media will soon start saying that the amount found was ‘very small,’ & it wasn’t really COCAINE, but rather common ground up Aspirin, & the story will vanish,” Trump added.
Trump also asked whether Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last fall to oversee the DOJ’s investigations into the former president, has “been seen in the area of the cocaine” and said the special counsel “looks like a crackhead to me.”