The FBI will relaunch investigations into three high-profile cases from recent years, including the 2023 discovery of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency and the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former conservative radio star, announced the decision Sunday on social media platform X. He said the Bureau will also escalate its investigation into pipe bombs planted at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
“Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,” Bongino wrote. “We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases.”
Bongino, working alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, said he receives weekly briefings on the cases and that investigators are “making progress.”
He also issued an appeal to the public for assistance. “If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us, then please contact the FBI.”
The cocaine discovery occurred on July 2, 2023, when a small, zippered bag containing the illegal substance was found in a storage locker near the West Wing entrance, specifically in “the lobby area of the West Executive Avenue entrance to the White House.” The discovery prompted an evacuation of the executive mansion and sparked intense political speculation.
The Secret Service launched an investigation but closed it due to inconclusive results.
“On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons,” the agency said in 2023. “Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl’s evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine.”
The Secret Service said the substance was found in a “highly trafficked” but secure area of the White House. Then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said public tours of the West Wing had taken place over the weekend when the discovery was made.
The Biden family, including former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, were not at the White House when the cocaine was discovered. Instead, they had recently left for the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the cocaine belonged to either Joe or Hunter Biden. During an interview with The Spectator’s Ben Domenech, Trump was asked, “So … who actually left the cocaine in the White House?”
“Well, either Joe or Hunter,” Trump responded. “Could be Joe, too.”
Trump criticized the forensic investigation, saying, “That was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with … 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. You know that, right?”
Hunter Biden has a documented history of substance abuse and detailed his crack cocaine addiction in his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things.”
The Supreme Court leak case involves Politico’s publication of the draft Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion on May 2, 2022, which revealed the Court’s intention to overturn Roe v. Wade. The leak prompted widespread protests and political upheaval months before the official decision was released.
The Supreme Court announced in January 2023 that its investigation into the leak had failed to identify the responsible party. The Court’s 23-page report stated that the investigative team “has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Trump condemned the leak and called the source “slime,” demanding that journalists involved in the story be “imprisoned until they revealed who it was.”
The third case involves pipe bombs placed at the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington the night before the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The bombs were later defused by authorities.
The FBI released footage of the suspect and new information in the pipe bombs case on January 2, but the case remains unsolved. The Bureau has assessed more than 600 tips and conducted over 1,000 interviews without identifying the perpetrator.
Bongino previously raised questions about the White House cocaine discovery on his podcast in 2023 when he was still a right-wing media personality. He alleged that he was in contact with whistleblowers who were “suspicious” that evidence from the cocaine bag “could match a member of the inner Biden circle.”
These cases have been popular talking points among America’s political right wing and even conspiracy theorists. The renewed investigations come as the Trump administration has installed new leadership in key FBI positions, with Bongino moving from his role as a conservative podcaster to deputy director of the Bureau.
All three previous investigations ended without identifying those responsible for the cocaine, the Supreme Court leak, or the pipe bomb placement. The FBI has not provided additional details about what new evidence or investigative approaches might be used in the reopened cases.