Six staffers in Rep. Ritchie Torres's Bronx office cracked open an envelope at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 16th. White powder spilled out. By 4:45 that afternoon, two more New York congressional offices — Rep. Tom Suozzi's in Queens and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries's in Brooklyn — had opened identical envelopes. Ten people were exposed across the three offices before anyone understood the pattern.
More than 100 of those envelopes are still circulating in the U.S. mail system right now.
The FBI confirmed it is working alongside the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Capitol Police to investigate what has become a nationwide campaign of suspicious mailings targeting over three dozen members of Congress and election offices in at least 15 states — all less than three weeks before the November 3 midterms. House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland warned lawmakers to expect more letters arriving "in the coming days."
The envelopes are plain white, processed through a north Texas mail processing center, and stamped with the words "Thinking of You." The upper left corner carries a return address linked to the Democratic Socialists of America. A DSA spokesperson flatly denied involvement: "D.S.A. did not send these letters." No one with a functioning brain thinks they did. Whoever is behind this wanted the letters to look like they came from the left — which tells you something about the goal.
One letter, received by Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan, "made a direct and specific reference to an impending 'civil war' beginning after the election." That's not a prank. That's not a protest. That is someone using the U.S. Postal Service to deliver terroristic threats to federal officials during an election cycle.
The targets cross party lines. Sen. Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, reported his Omaha office received a letter with a powdery substance. Sen. Ted Cruz's Texas office got one. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said from his Sioux Falls office that "this situation is deeply concerning and follows a trend of intimidating tactics." Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — five staffers in Moulton's Salem office alone were exposed. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam's district office in Leesburg, Virginia was evacuated entirely.
None of the powder has been confirmed as hazardous. That fact will be used to minimize this. It shouldn't be.
The 25th anniversary of the 2001 anthrax attacks on the Capitol was last week. Those attacks killed five people, infected 17 others, and shut down congressional mail operations for months. The people who opened these envelopes on Friday didn't know the powder was harmless when it hit their hands. That's the entire point of the tactic — the terror is the product, not the substance.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California said "a member of our team identified a letter matching the description and return address" before it was opened. His staff got lucky. Rep. Subramanyam called the letters what they are: "These acts of political intimidation have no place in our country." Panetta added his office "will not deter us from doing our job" — a typo-grade quote, but the sentiment lands.
In 2024, election offices in 17 states were targeted with similar mailings. That campaign was never publicly solved. Now the target list has expanded to include sitting members of Congress from both parties, the volume has surged past 100 letters, and the letters reference civil war. The escalation pattern is not subtle.
Torres, whose staffers were the first exposed, released a statement afterward: "We are living in a time when threats against elected officials and their staff have become the new normal."
Over 100 envelopes. At least 15 states. Both parties. No suspect. Two weeks to Election Day.
