FBI and postal inspectors hunt sender of white-powder letters targeting US election offices and Congress weeks before midterms
Letters with unknown substances were mailed to congressional and Secretary of State election offices across multiple US states three weeks before Election Day, triggering a joint FBI and Capitol Police investigation.
Letters containing an unknown white powder have prompted evacuations at election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma, with the FBI and US Postal Inspection Service investigating a nationwide campaign of mailings directed at Secretary of State offices and congressional offices just three weeks before November's midterm elections. A suspicious package bound for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose was intercepted by the Postal Service before delivery. Senator Chris Murphy's office confirmed it was among those targeted; existing security protocols kept staff safe.
The envelopes bore a return address tied to 75 Maiden Lane in New York — a building once used by the Democratic Socialists of America, though the DSA says it has not occupied the address since 2013.
Postal Inspection Service senior official Brendan Donahue cautioned at a press conference that although law enforcement is working to head off further letters, 'it is possible that some letters may reach their destinations.'
Such threats are not unprecedented — in the weeks before the 2024 presidential election, mailings containing powder reached election officials in at least six states, and the 2001 anthrax letter campaign killed five people.
