Obama Was Target of Letter Containing ‘Suspicious Substance’
By Julianna Goldman & Roger Runningen - Apr 17, 2013 11:41 AM ET
A letter addressed to President Barack Obama containing a “suspicious substance” was intercepted at a mail screening facility, according to the U.S. Secret Service.
The letter was received yesterday, the same day that a letter suspected of being tainted with the poison ricin and addressed to Senator Roger Wicker was discovered at a congressional postal facility.
The Obama letter was found at a site off the White House grounds that routinely screens the president’s mail, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said in an e-mail.
The Secret Service is working with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI in an investigation into the contaminated mail.
Authorities hadn’t announced any arrests as of late yesterday. The letter to Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, was postmarked from Memphis, Tennessee, and initially tested positive for ricin, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer said in an e-mail.
U.S. Capitol Police were notified by the facility yesterday “that it received an envelope containing a white granular substance,” Officer Shennell S. Antrobus, a spokesman for the force, said in a statement last night.
“The envelope was immediately quarantined” and “preliminary tests indicate the substance found was ricin,” Antrobus said.
Security was stepped up at the Capitol and near the White House after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. The U.S. Capitol police were investigating a suspicious package at the Hart Senate Office Building today and warning staff members to avoid the area.
To contact the reporters on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net
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