“Suspicious powder” discovered in White House common room found to be cocaine

A “suspicious powder” that was discovered in a White House common room on Sunday night was found to be cocaine, according to a new report from the Associated Press. Per the publication, the White House executive mansion was briefly evacuated and a security alert was declared after the discovery, which was made while President Joe Biden was away at Camp David. The president and his family left on Friday and returned to Washington, D.C., for Independence Day. 

According to two law enforcement officials who agreed to speak with the AP on the condition of anonymity, the white powder was not in any particular West Wing office. It was, however, in an area that is accessible to tour groups. Fire and emergency crews were brought to the Capitol to do a rapid preliminary field test, which reportedly identified the substance as cocaine. As The Washington Post reported, in a brief dispatch with a timestamp of 8:49 p.m. on Sunday — which was logged on a website called openmhz.com — a firefighter with the D.C. department’s hazardous materials is recorded as saying, “”We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride.”

In a statement to the Washington Post, the Secret Service said that briefly closing the White House was out of an abundance of caution as emergency crews investigated, and that the fire department was called to determine whether or not the substance was hazardous. “The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.