The Secret Service on Thursday delivered a briefing to a congressional committee and also released a public statement that included two significant admissions that, for some, are rather concerning.
The federal protective agency revealed that in addition to being unable to determine who was responsible for the cocaine found in the White House nearly two weeks ago, there were at least two incidents in 2022 when marijuana was found in the White House, according to the Daily Caller.
It was further admitted by the Secret Service that, similar to the recent cocaine discovery, nobody was publicly identified as the culprit for bringing weed into the White House and no arrests were made in those prior incidents.
The New York Post reported that a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, "Per the Secret Service Uniformed Division, small amounts of marijuana were found on two occasions in 2022 (June and September), at a checkpoint."
"No one was arrested in these incidents because the weight of the marijuana confiscated did not meet the legal threshold for federal charges or DC misdemeanor criminal charges as the District of Columbia had decriminalized possession," the spokesperson added. "The marijuana was collected by officers and destroyed."
Meanwhile, after just 11 days since cocaine was discovered in the West Wing, the Secret Service revealed that it had ended the investigation "due to a lack of physical evidence," such as DNA or fingerprints on the bag, and stated, "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 Post noted that the rapid closure of the cocaine investigation did not sit well with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who told reporters, "It seems to me that Biden Inc. strikes again," and wondered aloud, "How can in the White House -- 24/7 security -- they find cocaine but now they just closed the investigation. Where in the country do you get treated like this? Only with the Bidens, with the Bidens in charge. There is no equal justice."
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) also took particular exception to the belated admission of the discovery of marijuana in the White House on two prior occasions, and told reporters, "So for this being the third time that drugs were found on the White House property during the Biden administration certainly poses a question: What kind of people are we allowing to go onto that premise? And what is their actual purpose there?"
There will also likely be several young former and would-be White House staffers who are displeased by this revelation, as the Daily Beast reported in March 2021 how "dozens" of predominately young staffers were "suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use" at the beginning of the Biden administration.
This, despite having allegedly been reassured during the application and hiring process that prior marijuana usage would no longer be a disqualifying factor in terms of White House employment.
The apparent double-cross was deemed all the more egregious in light of Biden's campaign promise to ease up on marijuana and begin the process of decriminalizing the intoxicating plant as a federally scheduled controlled substance.
For what it is worth, CNN reported in October 2022 that President Biden took a delayed and small step toward fulfilling that campaign vow when he issued a blanket pardon for all previous federal offenses of simple marijuana possession -- which sounds good for those in favor of pot use until one realizes how very people are actually charged and convicted of just simple possession, as that is almost always tacked on to other more substantial federal drug offenses.
"No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden said at the time of his executive actions. "It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities."
After pointing to racial disparities in arrests and prosecutions for marijuana usage, despite similar usage rates among different demographic groups, the president added, "Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs."
