Woman pleads guilty to mailing ricin to then-President Donald Trump
Written by ABC AUDIO on January 25, 2023
(WASHINGTON) — A Canadian-French dual national has pleaded guilty to charges that she mailed threatening letters containing the poison ricin to then-President Donald Trump, as well as eight Texas law enforcement officers, in 2020.
Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 55, faces over 21 years in prison if a judge agrees to accept the terms of her plea agreement.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 26.
“There is no place for political violence in our country, and no excuse for threatening public officials or endangering our public servants,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves said in a statement. “We hope this resolution will serve as a warning that using our mail system to send a toxic substance and other threats of this type will cost you your freedom for many years.”
Ferrier admitted in plea records to making the ricin at her home in Quebec in September 2020 and mailing it to Trump and the eight Texas officials, who she blamed for being connected to a prior incident where she was detained in the spring of 2019.
The letter addressed to Trump instructed him to “[g]ive up and remove [his] application for this election.”
After mailing the letters, Ferrier drove a car from Canada to the Peace Bridge Border Crossing in Buffalo, New York, where border patrol officials arrested her and found her in possession of a loaded firearm, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other weapons.
She has remained in custody since then.
“This woman did not succeed in her efforts to poison numerous public officials in our district, but her actions still created fear and stress for many of these dedicated public servants,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a statement. “We are grateful for the hard work of the FBI and our other law enforcement partners in identifying and apprehending her.”
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