--- title: Cocaine Studio 54 Disco Scandal at the Jimmy Carter White House description: In 1979, the White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary faced what could have been a serious problem canonical: https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-03T11:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:49.062Z article:section: History og:title: How Studio 54, Roy Cohn and cocaine could have rocked the Carter administration og:description: In 1979, the White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary faced what could have been a serious problem og:url: https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbec8655b9f803fc6/6986a14555a8597688a8256b/jordan-carter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: MARCH 1978, WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER AND HAMILTON JORDAN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Studio 54, Roy Cohn and cocaine could have rocked the Carter administration twitter:description: In 1979, the White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary faced what could have been a serious problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbec8655b9f803fc6/6986a14555a8597688a8256b/jordan-carter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The '70s Cocaine Scandal That Could Have Rocked the White House > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2014 11:00 AM UTC  President Jimmy Carter And Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief Of Staff, In Washington On March 2, 1978 President Jimmy Carter And Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief Of Staff, In Washington On March 2, 1978Keystone-France / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2014 11:00 AM UTC The [presidency of Jimmy Carter](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,948928,00.html) is often remembered for its fair share of actual crises, from the [Iran hostages](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,954603,00.html) to [Love Canal](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,946977,00.html). But the scandalous news reported in the pages of TIME on Sept. 3, 1979 — 35 years ago today — was about a crisis that isn’t remembered much at all. Following a long feature about the President’s week-long August vacation-cum-campaign-tour on board a Mississippi River steamship, came this news: --- > “” --- As TIME reported, the FBI interrogated Powell on board the ship and Jordan in D.C. — both denying the allegation. Jordan admitted that he did go to Studio 54 “for about an hour once” but did not use drugs. But, as the story continued, the accusations didn’t exactly come out of nowhere: at the time, two of Studio 54’s owners were themselves in trouble, for tax evasion, obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges, and one of them had hired notorious lawyer Roy M. Cohn. Cohn heard that Jordan and Powell had visited the club, so he taped a statement from the dealer alleged to have provided the drugs and brought the tape to the FBI. Although the disco owners didn’t deny that they had ulterior motives — Steve Rubell, Cohn’s client, said he would testify against Jordan and Powell only in exchange for immunity for himself — the weight of the accusation meant that it could lead to, as TIME put it, “a major political crisis.” Hamilton Jordan was a powerful figure in politics, as well as, [as _People_ noted at the time](http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20074541,00.html), someone with “a reputation as a partygoer.” That crisis, however, never really materialized. A special prosecutor was appointed to the case, but no charges were filed. As Jordan, who died in 2008, wrote in his memoir _No Such Thing as a Bad Day_, “I remember the ‘celebration’ in my office in the White House on the afternoon that Independent Counsel Arthur Christy announced that the grand jury had voted 24-0 against bringing an indictment against me. Christy — who obviously had figured out the scam that Roy Cohn had almost pulled off — announced that there was no serious evidence against me and told a few key press people on background that I had been ‘set up’ by Roy Cohn and friends.” In the end, the events of 1979 did not lead to an indictment — but they did lead to this chart from the Aug. 22, 1994, issue of TIME:  A chart from the Aug. 22, 1994, issue of TIME [_Read TIME’s full 1979 report on the burgeoning scandal here._](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,948580,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/"},"headline":"The '70s Cocaine Scandal That Could Have Rocked the White House","datePublished":"2014-09-03T11:00:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:49.062Z","description":"In 1979, the White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary faced what could have been a serious problem","url":"https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/","keywords":["White House","History","Drugs","Scandal","Cocaine","anniversary","1970s","1970"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbec8655b9f803fc6/6986a14555a8597688a8256b/jordan-carter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbec8655b9f803fc6/6986a14555a8597688a8256b/jordan-carter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MARCH 1978, WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER AND HAMILTON JORDAN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF","caption":"MARCH 1978, WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER AND HAMILTON JORDAN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF","creditText":"Keystone-France / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3207118/studio-54-cocaine-carter-white-house/","name":"The '70s Cocaine Scandal That Could Have Rocked the White House"}}]}] ```