A Quebec woman has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for sending letters containing ricin to former President Donald Trump and eight Texas State law enforcement officials in 2020.
Pascale Ferrier, 55, a dual citizen of Canada and France, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to "prohibitions with respect to biological weapons" in two separate criminal cases over her use of the toxin. One of the cases was brought in the District of Columbia and the other was orginally in the Southern District of Texas but was moved to DC for the plea and sentencing.
According to the Department of Justice, Ferrier admitted to making the deadly poison at her residence in Quebec, Canada, in September 2020. Ricin is made from the waste material left over from processing castor beans — which is then turned into a powder.
There is no antidote for ricin poisoning. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Death from ricin poisoning can take place within 36 to 72 hours of exposure, depending on the route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, or injection) and the dose received."
"Ferrier had been detained in the State of Texas for approximately 10 weeks in the spring of 2019, and she believed that the law enforcement officials were connected to her period of detention," the DOJ said in a press release about the case. "In early September 2020, Ferrier used the Twitter social media service to propose that someone should 'please shoot [T]rump in the face.' The letters in the envelopes contained threatening language, and the letter addressed to then-President Trump instructed him to '[g]ive up and remove [his] application for this election.' Ferrier mailed each of the threatening ricin letters from Canada to the United States."
After mailing the deadly substance, Ferrier drove to the Peace Bridge Border Crossing in Buffalo, New York, on Sept. 20, 2020. She was stopped by border patrol officers who found a loaded firearm, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and other weapons.
She was arrested and has remained in custody ever since.
During the January hearing where she pleaded guilty, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves said “there is no place for political violence in our country, and no excuse for threatening public officials or endangering our public servants,” according to a report from The Hill.
