SDJW staff report
Envelopes containing suspicious white powder that inspections proved harmless were mailed to Democratic U.S. senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and to elections officials in a panoply of states.
Even though testing showed the substances to be benign, the sender or senders still could be prosecuted for intimidation of federal officials. Memory in the U.S. Capitol goes back to 2001, a week following the 9/11 attacks when anthrax was used to lethal effect, taking five lives and infecting 17 others.
Just because this one wave of envelopes took no lives, it doesn’t mean a subsequent tranche won’t be deadly. Letters to Congress and other branches of the federal government normally are screened, but mistakes still can happen,
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SDJW staff report.