The FBI and U.S. Postal Service are investigating letters containing suspicious substances sent to congressional and election offices across the country, with authorities urging recipients to treat the mailings as potentially hazardous.
The Senate was alerted to the investigation in a message from the Senate Sergeant at Arms obtained by The Associated Press. The situation appeared isolated to the Senate, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Packages containing a powdery substance prompted evacuations at election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma this week. The Ohio secretary of state also reported that the Postal Service intercepted a package containing white powder intended for his office, adding that similar mailings had targeted election officials in multiple states.
An image included in the warning message to the Senate showed one of the envelopes bearing a return address for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) headquarters. It remains unclear whether the DSA had any involvement in the mailings. A DSA spokesperson told the New York Post that the organization has not been located at the address listed on the envelope since 2013.
The incidents come three weeks before Election Day and recall a 2023 scare in which several election offices received envelopes containing fentanyl.
