The Secret Service confirmed Thursday that marijuana was found twice at the White House in 2022, sparking more questions about security after cocaine was discovered there earlier this month.
Secret Service officials talked pot to members of Congress during a Thursday briefing on the investigation into the cocaine found in the West Wing on Sunday, July 2, with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert then telling reporters about it.
The Secret Service Uniformed Division later confirmed details to DailyMail.com, noting that ‘small amounts of marijuana’ were found in June and September of 2022.
‘No one was arrested in these incidents because the weight of the marijuana confiscated did not meet the legal threshold for federal charges or D.C. misdemeanor criminal charges as the District of Columbia had decriminalized possession,’ Secret Service said in a statement.
‘The marijuana was collected by officers and destroyed,’ it continued.
The Secret Service confirmed Thursday that marijuana was found twice at the White House in 2022, sparking more questions about security after cocaine was discovered there earlier this month
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert told reporters after the Secret Service’s Congressional briefing on cocaine that marijuana had also been discovered at the White House – twice in 2022
Possession of under two ounces is not a crime in Washington, D.C., however because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, it’s not allowed to be brought onto federal grounds – which includes the White House.
The admission comes the same day the Secret Service announced it was closing the investigation into the White House cocaine discovery citing ‘lack of evidence’ just 11 days after the drugs were abandoned in a West Wing locker.
Furious Republicans have 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.
‘This is the third time that drugs have been found on the White House property since 2022, and we did not even hear about the marijuana,’ Boebert complained after the briefing.
‘I certainly did not hear about the marijuana that was found in 2022, two times, and now there’s cocaine on the property,’ she continued. ‘So everything they do is to move along to the next story. They know there will be another Biden crime crisis.
She also claimed that the Secret Service closed the investigation without a suspect ‘because everything in this administration is about covering up for the Biden crime family.’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t do the administration any favors by refusing to definitively say no when asked repeatedly if the cocaine was from a member of the president’s family.
Biden’s son Hunter has struggled with crack cocaine addiction.
Jean-Pierre snapped at a reporter last week and argued she had made clear that the cocaine couldn’t have been left by a family member because the Bidens were at Camp David.
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.’
His comments came after the Secret Service briefed members of Congress, 11 days after the cocaine discovery forced evacuation and a hazmat situation at the White House.
The list of suspects was narrowed down to 500.
Democrats said drug testing all of the potential 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.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said while he found the discovery of the drug ‘troubling’ he couldn’t imagine what more could be done, and he thought Republican calls for drug testing everyone were overblown.
President Joe Biden has been able to avoid facing the latest White House scandal as he escaped Washington, D.C. for meetings across Europe this week
‘You know, these are the same people who are opposed to COVID-19 tests,’ Raskin told reporters on Capitol Hill. ‘So I don’t see a lot of coherence.’
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, President Joe Biden has avoided the latest White House 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, 11 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 the 11 days 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 the president’s recovering addict son Hunter, 52, 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.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk