The Coke-In-The-White-House Story Fleshes Out

As you might expect, the story of where the cocaine was found in or near the White House has been morphing with each new report. Via CBS News, this seems to be the latest reliable veresion:

The substance was found in a common area of the West Wing, which houses the Oval Office and offices of some of the president's top aides and support staff. A senior law enforcement official told CBS News the substance was found in a storage facility in a cubby routinely used by White House staff and guests to store cell phones.

The Secret Service will lead a full review of how the substance got into the West Wing, the law enforcement officials told CBS News, including examining consulting cameras and entrance logs to determine who had access to the space.

I looked up "cubby" and find that Merriam-Webster defines it as "a small, snug place (as for hiding or storage) : cubbyhole." A web search gave the image above. The tweet below from James Rosen gives a little bit more detail:

BREAKING: Multiple officials at @USSecretService tell @NEWSMAX that contrary to more recent published reports, the cocaine was found “in a work area in the West Wing,” not in the @WhiteHouse library—and that the cocaine was “in a baggie” when discovered, not loose or concealed.

— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) July 4, 2023

This story at Hot Air draws reasonable inferences:

The drugs must have been brought there quite recently. After all, if they were located in a “cubby” where people drop their phones and other electronic devices before going in to see the President, how long could a clear baggy of an unknown white powdery substance remain there without being noticed?

. . . Even if we assume that it wasn’t Hunter Biden, who else brings a bag of cocaine to (presumably) see the President? You’d have to be pretty seriously hooked on the drugs to be unable to leave them in the car until your meeting was finished. Also, a plastic baggie of coke wouldn’t be picked up by a metal detector. If you had carried them undetected all the way to the Oval Office working area, why would you then take them out of your pocket and drop them off with your cell phone?

By the way, this is an example of how awful the copy editing at Conservative Inc is -- within two paragraphs, they spell it "baggy" and "baggie". These people are paid to do this. It resumes,

. . . This doesn’t sound like any sort of sinister plot or drug smuggling operation. It sounds like a boneheaded maneuver by an idiot. Perhaps someone whose brain is a bit addled by their crack addiction?

Just for fun, I looked up the penalty for cocaine possession on federal property, which would include the White House. For a first offense involving any amount:

Not less than 5 yrs, and not more than 40 yrs. If death or serious injury, not less than 20 or more than life. Fine of not more than $2 million if an individual, $5 million if not an individual,

I agree with the various writers who've surmised that the cubby area must be checked pretty frequently. The current stories say the baggie was discovered by Secret Service uniformed officers Sunday evening as part of a routine sweep. According to the New York Post,

White House pool reporters spotted the 53-year-old first son on Friday [June 30] climbing into the presidential SUV as it departed the White House enroute to Fort McNair, where the presidential travel party will helicopter over to Camp David in Maryland.

According to Newsweek,

Hunter Biden, his wife, and son Beau, returned to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday [July 4], along with the president and first lady Jill Biden.

It seems likely that few people would have been in the West Wing holding area between the Bidens' departure for Camp David on Friday and the discovery of the baggie Sunday evening, so that camera footage and visitor logs should be fairly easy to review.

But even if the culprit wasn't Hunter, that doesn't make the problem go away. The act of carrying the cocaine onto federal property carries a penalty of five years in prison, no matter who did it, and bringing it into the White House can't easily be finessed. In addition, if the individual involved was a federal employee, that person would probably have had a security clearance, and the drug episode would simply cancel that security clearance. If it were a Biden aide, that would also be big news.

Legacy media is now on the story, the long weekend is over, and I have a feeling this won't go away.

UPDATE: Matt Wallace, who as far as I can tell normally tweets on subjects like crypto currency and Elon Musk, was quoted by the UK Daily Mail as tweeting this:

The Cocaine found at the White House is not from Hunter Biden. The real story is actually much worse than that! Many of Joe Biden’s Top Staff regularly use Cocaine and other Hardcore Drugs. The cleaning crews are tasked with hiding all traces but this weekend was especially bad! pic.twitter.com/Wd3HHwzdY7

— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) July 4, 2023

For what it's worth.