The former Secret Service Director, Kimberly Cheatle, reportedly worked to destroy evidence relating to the cocaine discovered at the White House in 2023.
Sources familiar with the matter told RealClearPolitics that Cheatle and others in the agency wanted to destroy the cocaine.
When the cocaine was first discovered, a Secret Service agent called the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department, who issued evacuation orders for the premises.
Because the media was part of those evacuated, “there was no way to hide the information about the discovery, and the Secret Service leaders quickly shifted to crisis communications mode,” RealClearPolitics reported.
One officer assigned to the situation told Cheatle and then-deputy director Ron Rowe, who now serves as Acting Secret Service Director, that he wanted to follow “crime-scene investigative protocol,” the outer noted. The individual was then taken off the case.
After the Secret Service sent the plastic bag and its contents to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the FBI determined there was some DNA material, a “partial hit.” Secret Service officials did not choose to run more tests because “they didn’t want to know,” a source said.
Another source told the outlet that Congressional oversight committees need to put White under oath and confirm the ‘partial hit.’”
“Then the FBI needs to explain who the partial hit was against, then determine what blood family member has ties to the White House or what person matching the partial hit was present at the White House that weekend,” the source said.
The official Secret Service statement claimed that “insufficient DNA” led to the agency’s inability to “compare evidence against the known pool of individuals.”
“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 statement added.
The Secret Service denied that leadership wanted the cocaine destroyed.
