WLTR reported Sunday on a hazmat incident at the White House.
According to reports, the Secret Service cordoned off a significant area around the White House and requested a full hazmat response to the scene.
After discovering an “unknown item,” the Secret Service evacuated the White House grounds.
“U.S. Secret Service Uniform Division Officers located an unknown item on the White House complex,” a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“As a precaution, the White House grounds were evacuated, and the DC Fire Departments Hazmat team responded,” the spokesperson added.
DC Fire Hazmat officials tested the substance, and it reportedly came back positive for Cocaine Hydrochloride.
JUST IN: Hazmat Crew Reportedly Discovers Cocaine Hydrochloride Near White House
“US Secret Service have just shut down access to the Ellipse, Lafayette Park, 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue due to an unknown security incident,” said freelance DC journalist Andrew Leyden.
Vehicles have gone down West Executive pic.twitter.com/ZvFTERp5NK
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) July 3, 2023
“DC Fire Hazmat reports they have found a substance that tests positive for Cocaine Hydrochloride near the White House, which is a local anesthetic,” he added.
DC Fire Hazmat reports they have found a substance that tests positive for Cocaine Hydrochloride near the White House, which is a local anesthetic. Audio from @OpenMHz https://t.co/poI9vabqM7
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) July 3, 2023
Listen to the audio here:
BREAKING: Cocaine Hydrochloride spotted near West Executive Wing pic.twitter.com/cJLr2rnEDU
— The Triune Times (@TriuneTimes) July 3, 2023
The Secret Service confirmed to The Washington Post that the suspicious substance prompting an evacuation and hazmat response “indicated positive for cocaine.”
From The Washington Post:
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a suspicious substance that prompted a brief evacuation when it was found Sunday evening inside the White House, according to law enforcement authorities.
In a preliminary test, the substance, a white powder, indicated positive for cocaine, according to an official familiar with the investigation and the recording of a dispatch from a D.C. fire crew that responded to the incident.
A spokesman for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said the substance is undergoing further testing to determine what it is, and authorities are looking into how it got into the White House. He said the D.C. fire department determined the substance did not present a threat.
ADVERTISEMENTThe discovery prompted an elevated security alert and a brief evacuation of the executive mansion, Guglielmi said. He said President Biden was not in the White House at the time. Guglielmi said there is “an investigation into the cause and manner” of how the substance entered the White House.
The New York Post reported earlier this week the substance was located in the residence’s library.
“First son Hunter Biden, 53, who has acknowledged a prior addiction to crack cocaine, was on the White House grounds Friday before heading off to Camp David with his father for the holiday weekend,” journalist Miranda Devine wrote.
Cocaine found on White House premises, dispatch call shows… First son Hunter Biden, 53, who has acknowledged a prior addiction to crack cocaine, was on the White House grounds Friday before heading off to Camp David with his father for the holiday weekend https://t.co/57l9KR1cWU
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) July 4, 2023
The New York Post reports:
First son Hunter Biden, 53, who has acknowledged a prior addiction to crack cocaine, was on the White House grounds Friday before heading off to Camp David with his father for the holiday weekend.
They returned to Washington Tuesday morning.
ADVERTISEMENTRumors circulated in April that the first son may have been crashing at the White House for a time to avoid being served with court papers by the mother of his love child.
In his memoir “Beautiful Things,” Hunter detailed his years-long battle with cocaine addiction, which he said intensified after the death of his brother Beau in 2015.
Many photos, text messages and other communications revealing his cocaine abuse ended up on the first son’s now infamous laptop, including recently surfaced images of Hunter smoking crack behind the wheel of his car in a residential Arlington, Va., neighborhood in the summer of 2018.
Last month, the first son reached a probation-only plea deal with the Justice Department for tax misdemeanors and entered into a pretrial diversion agreement for lying on a federal gun-purchase form about his drug use.
UPDATE
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There are conflicting reports on where the cocaine was found inside the White House.
Although initial reports said the substance was found in the residence’s library, Secret Service officials reportedly said Tuesday it was located in the West Wing.
Cocaine Found in the West Wing of the White House
The cocaine was found in a West Wing common area where staff, visitors and some tourists pass through and leave personal items like phones etc before going to West Wing office areas.
It’s pretty damn sad the first thing millions… pic.twitter.com/rbBXw582O5
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 5, 2023
Here’s audio from the hazmat response.
It appears to say “library.”
You be the judge.
Good Morning Twitterland. Let the cocaine spin begin. I clearly hear “library” on this Hazmat audio, but WH spins it to ‘common workspace in the West Wing’ open to tours. pic.twitter.com/wVDgtBdBUy
— SweetPeaBelle (@SweetPeaBell326) July 5, 2023
However, a Secret Service source reportedly told Daily Mail the cocaine was found in a ‘West Wing work area.’
Daily Mail reports:
The mystery of the cocaine also deepened on Tuesday afternoon when Secret Service officials said it was found in the West Wing – an area used by members of the Biden administration, White House staff and hundreds of journalists.
Radio dispatches by the D.C. Fire Department and reviewed by DailyMail.com, suggested the substance had been found in the library two floors below the private White House residence – and part of the public tour.
The West Wing, where officials claim the cocaine was discovered, is the activity center for the White House.
It includes the Oval Office, offices for the president’s executive staff, Cabinet Room, Roosevelt Room and the press briefing room where dozens of members of the White House press corps gather for work every day.
Both career and political White House staff traverse the West Wing on a daily basis.
The sheer number of individuals in that space daily spans all the way up to the president’s closest advisers down to cleaning and maintenance staff.
Following initial reports that the white powder substance was found in the library and was confirmed as cocaine, trolls began to speculate that President Biden’s addict son Hunter Biden was the source of the illicit drug making it into the White House.
The White House library, however, is located in the executive residence and is part of the tour where members of the public regularly walk through. It is also two floors below the first family’s living quarters.
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