Federal authorities have charged an Oklahoma City man, Robin Patrick Martin, with sending more than 700 letters containing white powder to election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news organizations and federal law enforcement ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections. Martin was arrested on Monday, and the charges — one count of conveying false information and hoaxes and one count of mailing threatening communications — were made public on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The powder in the letters tested so far has turned out to be yeast or flour, the FBI said in its court filing, and no injuries have been reported.
According to the FBI's 34-page complaint, filed November 1, the mailings began around September 16, 2024, when election officials in every state reported envelopes holding a white, powdery substance and a three-page letter declaring war. The letters carried a return address naming a group that does not exist: "U.S.T.E.A., United States Traitor Elimination Army, Takoma Park, MD." A common message in the mailings warned recipients they faced arrest for treason, and messages written on the envelopes included: "Protect Trump! Protect the election! Protect legal votes! Throw out illegal votes!"
The mailings continued into October of this year, and some of them forced election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma to evacuate. Federal authorities announced last month that the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were investigating letters with "suspicious substances" sent to congressional and election offices nationwide, and the Senate's Sergeant at Arms warned that while law enforcement was working to intercept the letters, some might still reach their destinations.
Investigators say the trail back to Martin was built piece by piece. The FBI says it has video of his car stopping at Postal Service mailboxes in Oklahoma City, Dallas and San Antonio in October, and that his fingerprints were taken from a letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel. The complaint also ties him to a burner phone bought at a Walmart in northwest Oklahoma City, to handwriting comparisons, and to purchases of stamps, envelopes and materials used to make invisible ink.
For the election workers who received them, the letters turned opening the mail into a hazmat call: offices were emptied, buildings were swept, and ballots still had to be processed on time. With an arrest made, officials in every state can handle election mail without treating each envelope as a possible biological attack, and the agents and postal inspectors pulled into two years of intercepts can return to protecting the vote itself.
Martin was expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday in Oklahoma City. Online court records do not list an attorney who could comment for him. The charges are allegations, and Martin has not been convicted of any crime.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit:
https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Never miss a story — Join our Telegram channel
Breaking U.S. political news, live as it happens — plus the stories the big outlets sit on.
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram