On Monday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) revealed to Newsmax that the Secret Service had disposed of the bag containing cocaine found at the White House and lacks sufficient DNA evidence to determine the individual responsible for leaving it there.
Say it ain't so, Joe…
Rep. Burchett to Newsmax: Secret Service 'Destroyed' WH Cocaine Bag, DNA https://t.co/uI02bmi2Pj— NYCREMilton (@NYCREMilton) July 18, 2023
During an interview on “The Chris Salcedo Show” on Monday, Burchett raised concerns about the handling of the cocaine discovery at the White House by stating, “The Secret Service don’t even have the key from the locker [where the cocaine was found], and they said originally ‘we didn’t find enough DNA,’ now, and they went back and said ‘we didn’t find any DNA.’ Apparently, they destroyed the bag and any chance of getting any DNA.”
Burchett’s comments shed light on the controversial drug find and subsequent investigation.
Burchett highlighted the contrasting approach that would have been taken if a similar incident had occurred during his tenure as the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. According to him, the police would have swiftly responded, wearing “hazmat suits,” to secure the item, place it in an evidence bag and promptly send it to a laboratory for thorough analysis.
He said, “I was Knox County mayor. When we found an unknown substance somewhere, we called on law enforcement or the sheriff’s department, the best in the country, and our police department, one of the best in the country, obviously to come in with hazmat suits to put in the bag and take it to a lab. That’s exactly what they should have done here. They should have taken it to Quantico and analyzed it, but instead, they destroyed the bag.”
On July 13, NBC News reported that the Secret Service had concluded its investigation into the bag of drugs discovered in a White House “cubby” near the Situation Room in the West Wing over the July 4 holiday weekend.
As per the report, the baggie containing cocaine, when examined at two different federal labs, did not provide any usable fingerprints or DNA. Additionally, the security video footage of the area did not reveal the identity of the individual who may have left the bag there.
Burchett even suggested that there may be Republicans who are aiding the Democrats in concealing any potential wrongdoing by the Biden administration.
He commented, “We have some [GOP] members that don’t have any guts, frankly, and it ticks me off. I have often said that you know we are the government’s checkbook, and we need to start cutting money to these groups, the IRS, the Pentagon, Department of Justice.”
