Federal authorities have charged an Oklahoma City man with sending hundreds of threatening letters containing white powder to state election officials, lawmakers, pollsters and media organizations across the country in the run-up to the midterm congressional elections.
Robin Martin was charged in US District Court in Oklahoma with conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes, as well as with mailing threatening communications, according to the FBI.
Testing of the powder found inside the letters determined that it was either harmless yeast or flour, the bureau said in an affidavit. Reuters was unable to contact a legal representative for Martin.
According to the FBI, the mailings sent in early October were addressed to state election officials in all 50 states. Investigators also believe Martin had sent threatening letters in 2024 to election officials and postal officials.
The threatening letters mailed in October bore an outdated return address of the Democratic Socialists of America in New York, the FBI said.
The bureau added that Martin had made contact with the Democratic Socialists of America in August and obtained the email addresses of the organization's members. Those members were then placed on a mailing list that sent them threatening messages, warning that they could be arrested if they voted.
Investigators also tied Martin to a threatening letter sent in 2024 that, according to the FBI, "claimed that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, and voiced concerns regarding some of the same issues recurring in the then-upcoming 2024 election."
The FBI said it connected the letters to Martin through surveillance video from postal facilities and from a Walmart store, where a phone believed to have been used in carrying out the threats had been purchased.
The government said Martin had also written a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel that was determined to bear Martin's fingerprints. That letter contained a message written in ultraviolet-reactive ink reading "FBI SAVE THE USA," a hidden marking that investigators said also appeared on the other threatening letters.
Taken together, the evidence described by investigators links Martin to threatening mail sent over at least the past two years, culminating in the October wave of letters directed at election offices in every state.
