A woman arrested for sending letters filled with ricin to Trump will remain in custody.
A U.S. federal judge said Monday that a Canadian woman arrested on suspicion of sending ricin-filled letters to President Donald Trump “posed a continuing danger” to Trump and ordered her detention and transfer to Washington. DC, where she was charged.
H Kenneth Schroeder Jr., a magistrate judge in Buffalo, New York, said Pascale Cecile Véronique Ferrier, 53, a resident of the Canadian province of Quebec, was at risk of absconding and had shown a tendency to harm Trump and others if she was released.
Schroeder said he had examined government evidence that Ferrier had nearly 300 rounds on her when she was arrested trying to enter the United States earlier this month, along with traces of ricin found at her home in Quebec.
“I conclude that there is clear and convincing evidence that the accused poses a continuing danger to the President of the United States as well as to members of the community,” the judge said during the hearing.
The envelope addressed to Trump was intercepted on September 18 at the White House mail sorting center in Washington, where U.S. Postal Service personnel reported her as a suspect and contacted the FBI, according to a filed FBI affidavit with the impeachment documents.
Ferrier was arrested on September 20 at the Canada-U.S. Border between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ont., And a grand jury in Washington returned an indictment last Thursday, according to documents filed by the court.
Schroeder said Ferrier should be taken into the custody of the US Marshals Service with the aim of transferring her to Washington to face the charge that she threatened to kill and injure the president.
“Sadly, this country has witnessed assassinations and attempted assassinations of the President of the United States, dating back to Abraham Lincoln and then William McKinley here in this same town of Buffalo, New York, to the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and now many threats allegedly made by the accused against Donald J. Trump, ”said the judge.
