Two years after the U.S. Secret Service discovered a bag of cocaine in the White House in July 2023, newly released documents revealing that the substance was ordered destroyed within 24 hours of the case being closed are raising fresh concerns about the thoroughness of the investigation.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration document titled “Destruction” confirms that the bag of cocaine found at the White House was transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department for incineration, RealClearPolitics reported. The document, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, does not include a specific destruction date.
However, internal Secret Service records indicate the substance was tested by the Secret Service, D.C. Fire Department hazmat technicians, and the FBI before being returned to Secret Service custody for storage on July 12. Just two days later, it was handed over to D.C. police for destruction. The Secret Service officially closed the cocaine investigation 11 days after the substance was discovered, the report said.
The destruction of narcotics evidence must follow strict environmental and safety guidelines, and the D.C. police department operates an Environmental Protection Agency-approved incinerator frequently used by federal agencies to dispose of narcotics not tied to active legal proceedings.
However, D.C. police referred all inquiries regarding the apparent destruction of the White House cocaine to the FBI. Notably, there is no recorded date or official entry confirming when the substance was actually destroyed, said the report.
Early last week, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced the reopening of three high-profile investigations: the discovery of cocaine in the White House, the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and the pipe bomb found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021.
Bongino reaffirmed his commitment to pursuing answers in all three cases during a Wednesday night interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“Well, I get a kick out of it on social media,” Bongino, himself a former Secret Service agent, said. “People say, ‘This case isn’t a big deal. I don’t care.’ Well, I care. … You don’t care that a [potentially] hazardous substance made its way into the White House? We didn’t know what it was, and we don’t seem to have answers? Well, we’re going to get them. I’ve got a great team on it.”
Although the bag of cocaine discovered in the White House appears to have been destroyed, internal Secret Service records reveal that a second piece of evidence—an envelope containing three tubes of DNA collected by the FBI from the plastic bag—was retained and stored by the agency. It remains unclear how much DNA material the tubes contain.
The Secret Service has maintained its position that the FBI found the DNA evidence to be insufficient for developing any investigative leads.
After the Secret Service closed its investigation into who left cocaine in the White House on July 13, the agency issued a statement explaining its decision. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi claimed that surveillance footage didn’t provide any “investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited” the cocaine in the White House. He added that FBI lab results “did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient evidence was present for investigative comparisons.”
However, neither the FBI nor the Secret Service has publicly released the FBI’s lab results. According to DNA experts, the only definitive way to determine whether there was enough DNA on the bag to run comparisons against national and state criminal databases would be to retest the evidence—an option no longer available if the bag has been destroyed, RealClearPolitics noted.
Sources also told the outlet that surveillance video “clearly shows” White House staffers and visitors who came through the West Wing entrance, where Secret Service says the cocaine was found.
But the agency “never interviewed that group of individuals, citing the FBI’s alleged inability to find sufficient DNA evidence to link the cocaine to anyone,” the report said.