Secret Service Denies FOIA Request To Provide List Potentially Linked To Cocaine Incident

Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Secret Service has refused to supply The Heritage Foundation with a listing of people who could have been concerned within the White House cocaine incident, claiming such information are exterior its authority.

After the Secret Service closed the investigation into the cocaine difficulty in mid-July, the Heritage Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in search of the listing of a whole bunch of people who could have accessed the world the place the substance was discovered. In a July 25 letter (pdf) from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the company denied the request.

“As your request seeks records reflecting visitors or related information concerning the Office of the President, please be advised that these records are not Secret Service agency records subject to the FOIA.”

“Rather, these records are governed by the Presidential Records Act … and remain under the exclusive legal custody and control of the White House,” the letter argued.

The DHS’ response to the FOIA request made The Daily Signal, a information outlet of the Heritage Foundation, recommend that the Secret Service could have “never created such a list in the first place.”

Steve Bradbury, a distinguished fellow on the thinktank, dismissed the DHS arguments for not turning over the customer listing, pointing to the authorized distinction between an company file and presidential file.

The distinction is normally primarily based on “who generates the record and whose business the record reflects,” he informed the outlet. “If it’s an agency record, it’s subject to FOIA. If it’s a White House record, it’s covered by the Presidential Records Act.”

Mr. Bradbury mentioned that the important thing query is whether or not the Secret Service used the White House logs to create its personal new file.

If the Secret Service did use the White House information to create a “new document on its systems, which was its own list of suspects that it generated, that new document should” come below FOIA, he mentioned.

However if the Secret Service didn’t create a brand new doc, it might recommend that the company didn’t take the investigation critically, Mr. Bradbury recommended. The Heritage Foundation intends to enchantment the rejection.

This isn’t the primary time that the Secret Service has turned down a FOIA request on the White House cocaine difficulty.

Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter at Bloomberg, had earlier requested for info like emails, textual content messages, suspicious exercise reporting, intelligence bulletins, letters, directives, and different such materials referencing the cocaine discovered on the White House.

On July 11, the DHS notified Mr. Leopold that his request was denied, saying there have been “no records or documents available to you at this time.”

Ending the Investigation

The cocaine was discovered within the White House on Sunday night, July 3, with the Secret Service confirming the invention and proposing that it was introduced in by somebody who works there or had the authorization to enter the place.

The information triggered hypothesis of Hunter Biden’s involvement for the reason that president’s son is understood to have used medicine. In his memoir “Beautiful Things,” Hunter admits that he was hooked on crack cocaine for a number of years.

In a July 13 press launch, the Secret Service mentioned that it was ending the investigation into the cocaine matter “due to a lack of physical evidence.”

An FBI evaluation of the cocaine packaging “did not develop latent fingerprints.” The DNA proof was additionally “insufficient” for investigative comparisons.

“Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals.”

“There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area.”

“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 Secret Service mentioned.

Criticism of Case Closure, Marijuana in White House

The Secret Service’s closure of the case with out a decision had triggered criticism. In an interview with Fox, former president Donald Trump mentioned that it was “very disappointing” that the cocaine investigation resulted in just some days.

“That’s a big deal. Cocaine. Now, the cocaine, as they say, could have been worse,” Mr. Trump mentioned.

“They could have had bioweapons … If somebody is taking cocaine and making decisions—what if there is fentanyl? What if it was anthrax?”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) referred to as out the duplicity of closing the cocaine case whereas Jan. 6, 2021, protestors have been nonetheless being pursued by authorities.

“With all the drug testing tools available, a list of approx 500 people, surveillance cameras, fingerprints, and more, the Secret Service is ending their investigation on who brought cocaine into the White House with ZERO suspects! But the DOJ is still arresting and prosecuting more people for J6,” she said in a July 13 put up on Twitter.

In addition to cocaine, the Secret Service has additionally discovered marijuana on the White House below the Biden administration.

Last yr, “small amounts of marijuana” have been found on the White House on two separate events in July and September, a Secret Service spokesperson mentioned to Fox in mid-July. The amount of marijuana got here to “less than 0.2 ounces of marijuana in both instances.”

“No one was arrested in these incidents because the weight of the marijuana confiscated did not meet the legal threshold for federal charges or D.C. misdemeanor criminal charges, as the District of Columbia had decriminalized possession … The marijuana was collected by officers and destroyed,” the spokesperson mentioned.