A Canadian woman from Quebec accused of attempting to mail poison to former President Donald Trump last year has pleaded not guilty to additional charges in a Washington DC courtroom.
Pascale Ferrier was originally charged with threatening to kill and injure the former president. She now faces charges of sending threats through the mail and violating biological weapons prohibitions, reported the Canadian Press.
US federal prosecutors allege that Ferrier mailed a letter containing the poison ricin to the White House along with a letter stating that if the poison didn’t work against Trump, the author of the letter would use their gun.
Ferrier was arrested as she attempted to cross the US border at the Peace Bridge crossing between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York on September 20, 2020. Authorities stated that she was in possession of an automatic handgun and close to 300 rounds of ammunition.
Two weeks before Ferrier, 53, was arrested, she tweeted a hashtag in support of killing Trump, reported the New York Post.
On the same day, she tweeted, “I have a new name for Trump: ‘the ugly tyrant clown.”
The ricin-laced letter was detected at a government facility that screens all mail addressed to the White House and the president. There is no known antidote for ricin.
Ferrier is also a suspect in the case of letters containing ricin being sent to police in Texas, according to the New York Post.
“We believe a total of six letters were sent: one to the White House and five to Texas,” RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier told CBC News.