Republican lawmakers across 3 states received letters with white powder

June 23

Republican legislators from three states have received letters over the last week containing a mysterious white powder.

Someone sent two lawmakers in Montana the unsettling letters on June 23, CNN reported. Several Tennessee Republicans got similar letters the day before, according to the Tennessee Star. And on June 18, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation reported that more than 100 Republican lawmakers and officials from across Kansas received similar letters, which also included the suspicious powder.

The FBI is looking into the incidents in all three states..investigators say preliminary testing showed the powder was not a threat to public health.

The letters contained cryptic messages and details designed to get recipients to open them, lawmakers told CNN.

"To honor your recent accomplishments I send to you a gift from the exclusive astruc baruch collection," one letter to Kansas State Rep. Stephen Owens read, according to CNN. "It is important not to choke on your ambition."

Owens told CNN the return address listed a church located in her district: "It was very deliberate, very intentional to get us to open the letters."

from Mainstream Media