Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren is being ridiculed online for her latest take on the White House cocaine scandal.
In a Tuesday post on X, Lahren responded to the release of new photographs taken by the Secret Service after a small bag of cocaine was discovered in the West Wing in July.
“Photos from that cocaine in the WH have been leaked and I’m sure the investigation into the leaked PHOTOS will be more thorough than the investigation into who trafficked the coke in, in the first place!” Lahren proclaimed. “I’ll discuss next on @FoxFriendsFirst.”
But there’s just one problem: The photographs had been released in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by numerous media outlets. In other words, no investigation would be taking place into the nonexistent leak as claimed by Lahren.
Found on July 2 in a cubby commonly used by tourists to store their belongings, the bag of cocaine led to a brief shutdown of the White House and immediately stirred conspiracy theories online.
Conservatives largely blamed the cocaine on President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, while some progressives suggested that the bag may have been planted by Republicans or Trump-supporting Secret Service members to embarrass the administration.
Lahren’s incorrect assumption on X about the photos has since been bombarded with criticism and mockery.
“It was a FOIA, not a leak,” one user responded.
“FOIA productions aren’t leaks,” another said.
Jason Leopold, a Bloomberg News journalist who filed one of the FOIAs and shared the photos to X, also poked fun at Lahren’s lack of knowledge on the subject.
A Community Note was eventually added to Lahren’s post to indicate the errors in her statement.
“The photos were not leaked. They were provided by the Department of Homeland Security to a Bloomberg News journalist who requested the photos via a Freedom of Information request,” the note said. “The reporter then publicly posted the photos and report to X and DocumentCloud.”
Despite the pushback, Lahren has left her post online and has also failed to issue a correction.
The investigation into the cocaine ultimately led to no suspects or arrests.
