Top Republican Sen. demands Secret Service release ALL information on White House cocaine discovery
Senator Tom Cotton wants more clarity after the Secret Service found cocaine in the White House over the weekend — and demands that Americans and Congress get their well-deserved answers.
Cotton, the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, wrote a letter Wednesday to US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle with six questions he wants answered.
He demanded that Cheatle schedule a briefing with his staff.
“Congress and the American people deserve to know how cocaine got into the White House,” he said in a tweet along with an image of the letter.
A uniformed Secret Service agent found a white powder substance in the White House on Sunday evening, leading to a dangerous situation and the building being evacuated. President Joe Biden was not at the White House because he was at Camp David with his family for the long holiday weekend.
Member of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism Senator Tom Cotton (pictured) demands answers from the US Secret Service about finding cocaine in the West Wing as the hunt figures out who is responsible for bringing illegal drugs into the White House
Critics of the First Family say President Joe Biden’s drug addict son Hunter (second from right) is responsible for the drugs in the White House. Pictured: President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden and son Beau, three, watch fireworks from the Truman balcony of the White House on Tuesday, July 4, 2023
The Washington DC Fire Department said preliminary tests showed the substance was cocaine, according to a July 2 appeal. This was later confirmed in follow-up lab tests on Wednesday.
While the dispatcher said the powder was found in the “library” of the White House, the USSS issued a statement that the cocaine was actually found in a “West Wing operating area.” Later reports contradict both claims and now say the illegal drug was discovered in the cubicle of a storage facility in a dime-sized zippered bag in which many White House employees and guests stash their phones.
USSS has launched an investigation to find out who brought cocaine into the White House and how it got through any security checks. Biden critics and trolls online think they’ve already solved the case — so to speak — and claim that Hunter Biden is to blame.
Meanwhile, Cotton is demanding USSS Director Cheatle to respond to his letter within nine days — by closing time on Friday, July 14.
“According to public reports, the Secret Service has not yet confirmed where in the West Wing the cocaine was found,” Cotton wrote in his Wednesday letter. “I urge you to release that information quickly, as the American people deserve to know if illegal drugs have been found in an area where confidential information is exchanged.”
“If the White House complex is not secure, Congress needs to know the details, as well as your plan to correct any security flaws,” the Arkansas senator added.
In addition to getting clarity on the current situation, Cotton also wants to know if this has happened in the past.
How many times has the Secret Service encountered illegal drugs in the White House complex in the past five years? How often have these drugs been found during security screenings and how often have these drugs been found in secure areas?’ he wondered.
Cotton’s letter asks three questions, including how many times drugs have been found in the White House over the past five years
Cotton gave USSS director Kimberly Cheatle (above) nine days to respond to the letter, which contains six questions
Speculators online have said President Biden’s addicted son, Hunter, 52, is responsible for bringing drugs into the White House. But others speculate it may have been a number of people who pass through the White House each day.
Hunter was at the White House on Friday, June 30 before heading to Camp David with his family for the July 4 long weekend. He returned to the White House on Tuesday with President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, wife Melissa Cohen and son Beau, three, for Independence Day celebrations on the South Lawn.
The White House is silent on the incident.
But Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was forced to face questions on the matter at the press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
She would not go beyond what has been stated by the USSS so far, but did suggest that the area found is a “heavily traveled” spot in the White House.