A federal investigation of letters containing unknown substances that were mailed to elected officials’ offices has expanded as some Republicans have been identified as targets of the mailings, a person with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC News on Friday.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Rounds of South Dakota confirmed that they were among the GOP lawmakers targeted by the mailings.
Two letters were sent to Collins, including one to her Portland office and another to her office in Washington, D.C., Collins’ chief of staff, Katie Brown, said in a statement Friday. Brown said that the letters were intercepted before they arrived and that no one was injured by them.
Ricketts wrote in a post on X that his Omaha office “received a letter with a powdery substance” that matched the description of those sent to other offices.
“Our team worked closely with Omaha PD, FBI, and Capitol Police. They confirmed the substance was not harmful,” Ricketts wrote. “We are grateful for our law enforcement.”
Cruz described a similar letter sent to his Houston office, writing in a post on X, “This incident is deeply concerning. Attempts to intimidate your political opponents have no place in our country.”
In his own post, Rounds wrote that his Sioux Falls office had received a suspicious piece of mail. He said that his team alerted the Sioux Falls Police Department after seeing guidance from the U.S. Capitol Police regarding other letters they had intercepted.
“This situation is deeply concerning and follows a trend of intimidating tactics that impact our team members. This has no place in our nation. America is better than this,” Rounds wrote.
The names of the other targeted Republicans have not been revealed, though they are members of the Senate, the source said. Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, said that his district office in California had also received a letter.
“No one should have to worry for their safety simply because they go to work for the American people,” Kiley wrote. “This incident highlights — once again — why we need to bring down the temperature in our politics and embrace a return to civility and commonsense.”
Those lawmakers join a growing list of identified targets including at least 26 state election offices and at least 22 offices of congressional Democrats. Seven of those Democrats are senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
On Friday, Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts; Maxwell Frost and Darren Soto of Florida; Zoe Lofgren, Jimmy Panetta, Linda Sanchez, Laura Friedman and Gil Cisneros of California; Ritchie Torres of New York; Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and Analilia Mejia of New Jersey; Eugene Vindman of Virginia; Pramila Jayapal of Washington; Jan Schakowsky, Robin Kelly, Brad Schneider and Mike Quigley of Illinois; Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan; Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Kelly Morrison of Minnesota and Sarah Elfreth of Maryland also said offices in their home states received such letters.
Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Alex Padilla of California, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Chris Coons of Delaware, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have also reported that their offices received suspicious letters.
It is not yet clear just how many offices have been targeted by the mailings, though it appears that federal officials are approaching the incidents as being connected.
Two other sources familiar with the investigation into the suspicious letters, which contain an unknown white powder substance, said law enforcement has yet to trace the exact origins of the letters or the person or persons responsible for sending them.
According to one of the sources, “dozens and dozens” of letters have been sent out nationwide matching the same description.
“Everyone is at a loss at the scope of this, and no one knows where this is coming from,” another source told NBC News. “Most of the letters have been addressed to state offices but some to D.C.”
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are leading the investigation. Most, if not all, the letters sent to the senators were intercepted before they were delivered.
One of the sources said preliminary field testing continued through the night on the unknown substance and that so far, all the powder tested has been determined to not be hazardous.
Further testing will take place at law enforcement laboratories, the source added.
Senate and House staffers received notices Thursday with warnings about the suspicious packages as officials began to investigate the letters.
As of Friday afternoon, state election offices in Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming have also received packages.
The mailings come less than three weeks before Election Day and after threats against election workers have increased in recent years. Incidents of suspicious substances being mailed to election workers were reported both in 2023 and just weeks before the 2024 presidential election.
