In a sudden twist, the FBI has just reopened its investigation into the bag of cocaine discovered at former President Joe Biden’s White House in July 2023… and new documents raise serious questions about how the Secret Service handled and allegedly destroyed evidence in the high-profile case.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced this week that federal investigators will take a fresh look at the shocking incident that occurred during the July 4, 2023 weekend, promising a more thorough investigation than the one conducted by the Biden administration.
“Well, I get a kick out of it on social media,” Bongino said. “People say, ‘This case isn’t a big deal. I don’t care.’ Well, I care. … You don’t care that a hazardous substance made its way into the White House? We didn’t know what it was, and we don’t seem to have answers? Well, we’re going to get them. I’ve got a great team on it.”
The renewed investigation comes after investigative reporter Susan Crabtree at RealClearPolitics uncovered documents that “are raising new questions about the scrupulousness of the investigation” conducted by the Secret Service under former Director Kimberly Cheatle.
According to Crabtree’s reporting, the Secret Service moved quickly to destroy the cocaine evidence, transferring it for destruction just one day after abruptly closing the case.
“A U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency document titled ‘Destruction’ states that the bag of cocaine was sent to the Metropolitan Police Department for incineration,” Crabtree reported. “That document, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, doesn’t display a date for the destruction.”
The timeline revealed by internal Secret Service records shows the cocaine was tested by multiple agencies before being hastily disposed of.
“Other internal Secret Service records show that the cocaine was tested by the Secret Service, the D.C. Fire Department hazmat technicians, and the FBI before being sent back to the Secret Service for storage on July 12,” Crabtree found. “Two days later, it was transferred to the D.C. police department for destruction. The Secret Service shut down the cocaine investigation 11 days after discovering it.”
The bag containing nearly a gram of cocaine was discovered in a secure area just outside the White House’s West Wing. Secret Service officials claimed cameras had failed to capture the person who left the drugs.
When the Secret Service closed its investigation on July 13, agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi claimed there were no “investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited” the cocaine. He also said FBI lab results “did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient evidence was present for investigative comparisons.”
Neither the Secret Service nor the FBI has released those lab results to the public, critics noted.
President Donald Trump has suggested the investigation may have been compromised, criticizing the handling of potential fingerprint evidence.
“That was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins … they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints. And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry,” Trump said.
Forensic experts say the only way to definitively determine if usable DNA evidence existed would be to test the evidence again.
“The only way to really tell, is to test it again and see what happens,” said Gary Clayton Harmor, chief forensic DNA analyst at the Serological Research Institute in Richmond, California.
Harmor said different laboratories have varying standards for DNA testing.
“Some labs will test anything, and others are more reluctant if they think it’s not a good enough sample to [test against national DNA databases],” he said. “The FBI, knowing them, they’re probably very conservative, and it may be that they said, ‘Nope, there’s not enough here to do anything meaningful with.’ It really depends on who’s doing the testing and how they did it.”
The renewed investigation has sparked speculation about potential suspects, with attention primarily focused on then-first son Hunter Biden due to his well-documented history of drug use. During his 2024 trial for illegal possession of a handgun while on drugs, Hunter claimed under oath that he had been clean of all drugs and alcohol since 2019.
In his memoir, Hunter admitted to struggling with crack cocaine addiction for years, once claiming he had a “super-power” for finding crack cocaine no matter where he was and took a hit of crack “every 15 minutes” he was awake.
The Biden family claims Hunter was at Camp David when the bag of cocaine was found in the White House. Despite this, reports suggest Hunter was frequently present inside the executive mansion’s West Wing.
“Sure, it could have been someone else, but the point of reopening the investigation is to ensure that an adequate probe is conducted free from bias and influence,” said a source familiar with the matter.
Bongino indicated that he and FBI Director Kash Patel “made the decision to either reopen, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases” of public corruption under the Biden administration.
“Hunter has slipped through law enforcement’s fingers so many times. This may be his reckoning,” said one critic.