The “key” to solving who brought cocaine into the White House may depend on whether such an object is ever found.
While the biggest unsolved cocaine mystery is who brought the bag through security and dumped it in locker #50 under a gram of drugs, another unanswered question is what happened to the locker key.
According to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, the key was considered “lost” after cocaine was discovered in the locker on July 2, sparking a weeks-long scandal over the summer.
Interest in Cocaine-gate was renewed earlier this month when became the first to publish images of the White House drugs.
Intelligence documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request also shed light on what evidence may still have been present when the bag of cocaine itself was destroyed a day after the 11-day investigation concluded.
The key to Locker No. 50, where the cocaine was found, was considered “lost,” a Secret Service spokesman told
was the first news organization to publish images of the bag of cocaine found in White House Locker No. 50 on July 2
Locker users place their items in the lockers and then collect the keys. However, the key to locker number 50 was reported “lost” after the cocaine discovery on July 2nd
Buried in the 112 pages of documents handed over by the Secret Service is a reference to “Item #2,” described as “DNA secondary evidence of Item #1,” with Item #1 being the bag of cocaine itself.
In a document labeled “Certified Inventory of Evidence,” item #2 is described as an “envelope containing (3) tubes.”
An expert spoke to said these tubes likely contained the swabs or a cutting used to conduct the drug and DNA tests. However, Guglielmi couldn’t say for sure.
A chain of custody log stated that item #2 “remained safe” on July 28.
The bag of cocaine was sent for destruction on July 14, the day after the investigation concluded.
Another unanswered question is whether this secondary piece of evidence still exists.
“I don’t know exactly what was in the tubes, but as far as destruction is concerned, there is a retention schedule that must be followed and the time to retain evidence depends on the type of evidence and the processing status of the case.” Guglielmi told .
A secondary piece of evidence may be retained by the Secret Service. Another document noted it was an envelope containing three tubes that likely contained the swabs investigators used to test the drugs and bag
That document states that the second piece of evidence – which may still be in Secret Service custody – was an envelope containing three tubes
That document, which was part of ‘s FOIA request, states that the second “DNA evidence” “remained secured” as of July 18.
Asked whether the evidence destruction schedule was publicly available, Guglielmi replied: “The file you have contains all publicly available information.”
More broadly, the name of the person who discovered the cocaine and the names of other police officers who worked on the case were redacted, making it difficult to identify sources who could speak about the incident.
The list of suspects was narrowed down to 500 – also because there were no cameras that could capture the lockers directly.
Additionally, lockers are not assigned to specific staff, but guests can instead select a locker and then receive a numbered key.
It is also unclear whether interviews were ever conducted – and if not, why they did not take place.
Employees who don’t already work in the West Wing and guests taking tours use the lockers, which is why the suspect pool was so large.
A former Trump administration official suggested that the perpetrator was likely an employee because “security is a little more lax.”
However, a more recent White House source suggested that someone taking a tour was the most likely culprit, since anyone familiar with the White House would know that there is a restroom just steps away – where the contraband could have been washed away.
In the days following the discovery, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan expressed another theory – that a construction worker may have brought the cocaine since it was found near the situation room, which was being renovated at the time.
“I want to say something about the Situation Room because I think there have been a lot of questionable reports on this topic,” Sullivan said at a July 7 briefing. “The Situation Room is not in use and has not been used for months as it is currently under construction.”
“We use an alternate situation room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, so the only people entering and exiting the sit room during this time were workers making it operational,” he added.