The Secret Service stated on Thursday that it had closed its investigation into how cocaine ended up within the visitor foyer of the West Wing after safety video failed to offer any leads and no fingerprints had been discovered on the bag.
A small plastic envelope was discovered final week in an space of the West Wing that guests and employees members typically move by way of through the day. When employees members need to deliver relations or mates on excursions of the West Wing, they often achieve this at evening and on weekends.
“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 Secret Service stated in an announcement on Thursday.
“At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence,” the company added.
The bag was discovered close to an space the place guests undergo safety screening and depart their telephones in small cubbies.
The episode has garnered vital consideration from the general public and questions from some Republicans about safety on the White House and the way typically unlawful substances are discovered there.
“The American people deserve to know who smuggled illegal narcotics into the White House!” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, stated in a Twitter publish on Thursday.
The Secret Service briefed lawmakers on Thursday.
After the bag was found on a Sunday night, the Secret Service rolled out security measures to stop chemical or radiological materials from spreading additional into the White House. President Biden was away at Camp David together with his household on the time.
The substance was examined by Washington’s hearth and emergency companies division and decided to be cocaine. The powder was additionally despatched to the Homeland Security Department’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, the place it was formally decided to not be a organic weapon.
The bag was additionally despatched to the F.B.I. for a forensic evaluation, the Secret Service stated. On Wednesday, the bureau shared the outcomes that analysts discovered no latent fingerprints or sufficient DNA to help the investigation.
While the F.B.I. carried out the forensic evaluation, the Secret Service reviewed safety footage that went again a number of days earlier than the cocaine was found. It in contrast the footage with a listing of a number of hundred individuals who may need been within the space close to the cubbies. The hope was that the F.B.I. testing would yield forensic proof that may very well be in contrast towards the Secret Service’s record.
“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 Secret Service stated.
Source: www.nytimes.com