FILE – The White House is seen, July 30, 2022, in Washington. No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in the West Wing lobby last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the White House. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The White House cocaine story should not just fade away

Washington Examiner August 09, 12:01 AM August 09, 12:01 AM Video Embed

The public has a right to know details about the bag of cocaine found in the White House on July 2. It should not be a closed case, even though the Secret Service claims it can’t identify the culprit. The claim is on its face nonsense. Can there be any corner of the White House that is not monitored, and if so, why?

Congress and the Justice Department should investigate not primarily to embarrass the cocaine handler but because significant security issues are at stake.

KEVIN MCCARTHY WANTS TO KNOW WHO BROUGHT COCAINE INTO THE WHITE HOUSE

Soldier of Fortune magazine has reported that unimpeachable sources say Secret Service denials are false, that the agency has told President Joe Biden the identity of the person who brought the bag into the White House, and that fingerprints on the bag were those of “someone in the Biden family orbit,” although not the president’s wayward son, Hunter.

A healthy skepticism of “official” stories concerning the Bidens is reasonable considering how often law enforcement and other security personnel have promulgated exculpatory accounts about the family that proved untrue.

It is disgraceful that a bag of the drug could make it into the West Wing without detection and without the Secret Service being able to solve the mystery. The white powder could have been anthrax or fentanyl. The wrong sort of exposure to even small amounts of either substance could be deadly to the president or his aides.

In the unlikely event that the Secret Service is telling the truth, it would be perhaps more disturbing than the more plausible explanation, which is that it is lying, for the latter case would merely mean there is a cover-up, which is run of the mill in Washington, whereas the former case would suggest gross incompetence in the task of presidential security.

If the cocaine carrier were a Biden or somebody so close to the family that he or she enjoyed expedited entry, it would be marginally less concerning than if it were someone else, for it makes sense that the family can enter and leave the White House without constant screening. Nobody would expect drug-sniffing dogs to check the president, the first lady, or their children.

But if the perpetrator is someone unknown, the security lapse is significantly more serious. Everybody other than a Biden intimate should have been thoroughly screened before entering the building. Such a breakdown of the system requires congressional oversight and Justice Department and Secret Service analyses.

If the transgressor is a Biden, the Secret Service should tell us. The agency is not there to protect the family from the embarrassment of being caught possessing and using cocaine. Hunter Biden has already embarrassed the family spectacularly on that matter. More important is for the public to know that the seat of the federal executive is safe.

If, as we suspect, the Secret Service is lying about the evidence, it is committing an unforgivable breach of public trust and duty. It should understand that its job is to protect the physical safety, not the reputation, of the president’s family. The agency serves the public, not the man.

The cocaine incident will remain scandalous unless and until the public has definitive answers.

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