CNN
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Laboratory tests of the substance found at the White House on Sunday tested positive for cocaine, a Secret Service spokesman told CNN.
Earlier field tests tested positive for cocaine, but the substance was sent for further evaluation and testing, the Secret Service previously said.
The substance was found near the ground floor entrance to the west wing, a person familiar with the matter said. The location is where guided tours by White House staff pass on their way to the building.
The substance was found near where guests are asked to leave their cell phones before entering the West Wing. These visits are usually only on weekends.
Sources had previously described the substance as a white powder that was in a small ziplock bag. He was found by Secret Service personnel making routine rounds of the building.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that the White House is confident the Secret Service will “get to the bottom” of the incident. He confirmed that the cocaine was discovered in a “high-traffic area” in the west wing where visitors, as well as staff, pass through.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation and “everything we know so far,” Jean-Pierre said, noting that the Secret Service was conducting an investigation. “We’re confident they’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said.
He said tours of the building were recently conducted on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But asked if it was a working theory that a tour guest was to blame, he denied it.
“It’s where visitors to the West Wing come through,” he said. “I’m not going to speculate on who it was.”
A federal law enforcement official told CNN that additional tests being done on the bag include DNA analysis and fingerprints.
The Secret Service, the official said, is doing “everything possible” to try to identify who brought what the official described as a “dime-sized bag” into the West Wing. The official noted that identifying the culprit may be difficult because of the size of the bag and the number of people who would have had access to the area.
The Secret Service is reviewing visitor records, surveillance video and relying on analysis of the purse to try to advance its investigation, the official explained.
The bag, the official said, was not found on the floor, but in a cubby where visitors entering the west wing are asked to leave their phones. These cubbies can also be used by personnel who cannot bring their phones into a SCIF, or sensitive compartmentalized information facility, where classified materials are handled.
The discovery of the substance Sunday evening prompted a brief evacuation as part of what the Secret Service described as “precautionary closures.”
Biden was at Camp David over the weekend and returned to the White House on Tuesday morning.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
