WASHINGTON – The US Secret Service is investigating a “small amount” of a “white powdery substance” discovered in a “West Wing work area” on Sunday, a Secret Service official said.
The substance, which tested positive for cocaine in a field test, according to a radio dispatch from the Washington, DC, fire department, led to a brief evacuation inside the White House on Sunday night.
The Secret Service is testing the substance, which they determined was not “hazardous,” and said in a statement that they are looking into the matter.
“On Sunday night, the White House complex went into lockdown as officers from the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service investigated an unknown item found within a work area,” said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service. . “The DC Fire Department was called to assess and quickly determined that the item was not dangerous. The item has been sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner in which it entered the White House is pending.”
President Joe Biden was not in the White House at the time the substance was discovered; he left for Camp David on Friday and returned to Washington on Tuesday morning.
The White House declined to comment.
