Showing posts with label US President. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US President. Show all posts

Tuesday

Cocaine found on White House premises while President Biden was away

CC™ Politico News

By Tunde Akinyanju

The White House, the official residence of the President of the United States, was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David. The Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing, and a preliminary test showed the substance was cocaine, two law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds on Sunday when they found the white powder in an area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office, the officials said. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to CC™ on condition of anonymity.

The building was evacuated at about just before 9pm EST Sunday, as fire and emergency crews were brought in to do a rapid test, which preliminarily identified cocaine. The White House was soon reopened and the powder was sent for further testing.

President Biden and his family left for Camp David on Friday and returned to the White House on Tuesday.

The Secret Service said in a statement the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated, and that the D.C. fire department was called in to evaluate and determine that the substance was not 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.

First Disgrace: Hunter Biden to plead guilty to tax and gun offences


CC™ Global News

US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and admit to illegally possessing a gun while a drug user, after a five-year investigation.

The US Attorney in Delaware has filed papers indicating a plea agreement has been reached.

He is expected to agree to drug treatment and monitoring.

The terms of the agreement are likely to keep him out of jail.

The proposed deal would still need to be approved by a judge. It is unclear when Hunter Biden will appear in court to enter his guilty plea. 

Mr Biden, 53, has previously worked as a lawyer, and a lobbyist including abroad in China and Ukraine. He was discharged from the US Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.

The plea deal brings to an end a long-running justice department investigation into whether he properly reported his income and made false statements on paperwork used to purchase a firearm in 2018. 

The two misdemeanor tax charges stem from a failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, which have now been fully repaid. 

The gun charge stems from a 2018 purchase of a firearm while a drug user. 

In a 2021 book, the younger Mr Biden admitted to being a heavy user of crack cocaine at that time. 

But he reportedly said "no" on a federal form asking if he was "an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug or any other controlled substance".