investigation says that discussion of surveillance footage, that while there was surveillance cameras in that area, they were not directly trained on those cubbies where the cocaine was found. and another source says that the leading theory remains that this was left by a visitor who walked into the west wing for one of those tours over that weekend. but that is not the definitive conclusion of the secret service. the white house meanwhile in a statement, they say that they have been brief the by the secret service on the outcome of the investigation and that they are reviewing that information. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. investigators from the house ethics committee are reaching out to witnesses as part of a recently revised investigation into congressman matt gaetz. it is focused on allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use or other misconduct. one witness says that they spoke about alleged lobbying violations too. a source familiar with
this all happened at the lower level entrance of the west wing. now, there are cubbies there for visitors to drop off, say, their phones or maybe their bags. people come in there for tours that are led by white house staffers. there is also, apparently, a blind spot for video cameras that are actually near those cubbies, which are not far from the situation room. on the floor just above it it is everything from the oval office to the roosevelt and cabinet rooms. so, let s take a look from an investigative lens, shall we? because here are the big questions. what if the object had been a dangerous object? what if it was a piece of spy equipment? and how are they are blind spots in the white house surveillance? how could the fbi and all of its technology not be able to figure this out? how are visitors being vetted? is the building that houses the president of the united states truly secure?
guys? steve: lucas, to that point, so, in d.c. a small amount like that is legal; however, you are on federal property where it is illegal. so, so going forward, if they find pot, are they just going to say oh, you know what? there s not enough? it remains to be seen, steve. a lot of people are asking that same question in washington and frankly throughout the country. i know a lot of our viewers are as well. steve: thank you very much. ainsley: a lot to worry about if you smoke pot. i m on city property and step on federal property oh wait i need to ditch it. brian: other thing you just hope people would be focused on their job and not bringing drugs to drugs on the job. ainsley: you and i have been through that entrance i don t think tourists. steve: staff tours start there. ainsley: i don t remember the cubbies when i went into the that entrance. steve: just as you walk in just on the right side i believe. senator tom cotton said
how is this possible? from our reporting, from cnn s reporting, how could they not have any suspects? it s the white house. reporter: that s right. phil. that s the big question and has been the question the last several days. a source fam har with the investigation told me that at least in part the problem was that there wasn t a camera trained directly on these cubbies where this small bag of cocaine was left. there was surveillance everywhere else, but not trained on that. that immediately made it difficult because they didn t have the surveillance they needed in that one particular area. secret service, they combed through the footage they had. they also looked at the individuals who had come through that part of the white house, very traveled part of the white house, in the days preceding the discovery, and they also did the dna fingerprinting but the fbi lab results were inconclusive. the secret service said at this time the secret service investigation is closed due to a
out who actually brought a substance into the white house. any sense of why it s so hard to figure this out? actually, there s a few reasons. one is that you have to think about where isubstance was. found it was on the ground floor of the west wing of the white house, over the weekend. now, the specific location is what i referred to as the crossroads of the white house. you have white house staff members, west wing staff members, military, secret service, and senior leaders of the administration all passing through this one location, whether it is to do business in the west wing or access the white house situation room, which was just feet away from these cubbies. and the reason why those cubbies exist is because you cannot bring cell phones into that secure facility. now, complicating matters, you also had west wing tours. these are like the ip tours that are held off hours and on weekends. so, there was a lot of people