An Oklahoma man has been arrested and charged with sending over 700 letters to political figures, the news media, and others over the last two years, many containing a powdery substance and including threats about being arrested for treason.
The FBI charged Robin Martin of Oklahoma on Sunday with multiple counts of conveying a hoax and mailing threatening communications, as the Associated Press reports, following court filings being made public Tuesday. Martin, who is clearly a Trump supporter and a believer in Trump's election conspiracy claims, is accused of mailing more than 700 letters to public figures ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.
If convicted, Martin could face up to 15 years in prison.
The barrage of suspicious mail harkened back to the 2001 anthrax-letter scare — although in that case the substance sent in letters turned out to contain actual anthrax spores, likely from a government lab, and there were five deaths associated with the attack, including two postal workers.
Since then, the FBI has investigated many other faux-anthrax letter-sending sprees, including one targeting Alabama lawmakers in 2010, and one in the Atlanta area in 2017.
Among those who received the suspicious mail in recent weeks, which contained a powdery substance that turned out to be flour, were House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Representative Kevin Mullin, and Santa Cruz Representative Jimmy Panetta.
Election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma were evacuated after receiving the letters, which were thought to be potentially hazardous.
As The Hill reports, three-page letters were sent to state election officials ahead of the 2024 election which had the header "DECLARATION OF WAR" and went on to describe grievances over the 2020 election, insisting that Trump won.
Several weeks ago, a series of suspicious packages and envelopes began arriving at the offices of members of Congress from both parties, and these reportedly had varied text with a common refrain of "YOU WILL BE ARRESTED FOR TREASON!! OR WORSE!!"
Both the 2024 and 2026 batches of letters purported to be from the "United States Traitor Elimination Army," or UTEA, which the letter writer described as a "top-secret military organization with members all around the country."
The fake organization's return address was some former Green Party offices in Takoma Park, Maryland, but the FBI said it could not find any link between Martin and the address.
The Hill notes that an Illinois man was also arrested last month for mailing suspicious letters containing a white substance — in this case salt — to four Illinois lawmakers. It's unclear if that was a copycat effort, though it seems to have begun shortly after the letters allegedly sent by Martin.
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