Secret Service scandal: Ex‑chief Cheatle under fire over White House cocaine
2:21 PM EDT, August 6, 2024
The issue of cocaine found in the White House last year has resurfaced, and the latest reports do not portray the then-head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, in a favorable light.
In July last year, Secret Service agents found a bag of white powder in the White House. Tests confirmed that the bag contained cocaine. An investigation was launched to determine how the drugs ended up in the building. In November, ABC News reported that although the FBI analyzed the package, they could not find its owner.
The controversy of the cocaine found in the White House has resurfaced and casts a shadow over the then-head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned last month. According to TMZ, Cheatle reportedly asked the Secret Service Forensic Services Division and Uniformed Division to destroy the evidence before determining who the bag of drugs belonged to. However, her request was denied.
Cheatle wanted to close the case quickly due to fears of a media frenzy surrounding the discovery. One reason was that Hunter Biden was at the White House just before the cocaine was found. TMZ reminds us that Joe Biden's son struggled with cocaine addiction in the past, although he claims to have been clean for years.
According to the report, Cheatle's agency decided not to conduct additional DNA matching and did not interview anyone who worked at the White House. Cheatle later called the forensic team and asked them to destroy the cocaine and the bag it was found in, as the Secret Service wanted to close the case. However, she was informed that protocol requires evidence to be kept for 7 years, so her request was denied.
Cheatle leaves the position in disgrace
On July 23, Kimberly Cheatle resigned. This was related to allegations made against Secret Service agents following an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Cheatle admitted that what happened in Pennsylvania was "the agency's greatest operational failure" in recent decades. The Secret Service chief took full responsibility "for any security breaches by the agency."
