Canadian accused of sending poisoned letters to White House held in custody

A Quebec woman suspected of sending toxin-laced envelopesto the White House and to several officials in Texas will remain in custody for now.

PascaleFerrier, 53, who pleaded not guilty to the charge of threatening the president, appearedin a Buffalo, N.Y., courtroom this afternoon for a detention hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder said there is"clear and convincing material" to suggestshe poses adanger to U.S. President Donald Trumpandothers.

TimothyLynch, the federal attorney on the case, successfully argued thatFerrier, a dual Canadian-French citizen,shouldn't be released given the violent nature of her alleged crimeand her flightrisk.

According to an affidavit byan FBI bomb technician, officialsintercepted a letteraddressed to Trump and postmarked from Canadacontaining ricinata mail sorting facility on Sept. 18.

Ricin is found naturally in castor beans andis a deadly poison. Exposure to an amount as small as a pinhead can befatal.

According to the FBI, Ferrier wrote in the letter that she has cousins living in the U.S. and didn'twant four more years of Trump as president. Sheallegedly wrote thatshe had made a"special gift" for him and that if it didn't work, she'd find another poison recipe or use her gun.

Ferrier wasarrestedonat the Peace Bridge border crossing between Fort Erie, Ont., and New York State on Sept. 20. In her possession at the time werea loaded semi-automatic handgunwith seven rounds, plus another294 rounds of ammunition, pepper spray, a knife, a batonand a stun gun, said Lynch.

"She was loaded for bear, judge," he said.

Officials saidFerrier was also found with a fake Texas driver's licence bearingthe name "Jane Ferrier" at the time of her arrest.

Lynch also pointed to a pre-trial servicereport that argued there are no conditions that wouldcounter the risk she poses.

Ferrier's public defender, Fonda Dawn Kubiak, started her case by pointing out that her client is presumedinnocent.

She also said Ferrieris well educated, with a background in engineering, and that she turned herself over at the border.

Kubiak said Ferrier's family members particularly her son in Quebec are willing to support her and make sure she complies withimposed conditions.

But in the end, JudgeSchroedergranted Lynch'smotion detaining Ferrier and remanded her to custody while she waits for U.S. marshals to take her to WashingtonD.C.

Watch: Police search condo linked to toxic letter

Police search condo linked to Canadian arrested for allegedly sending ricin to White House

4 years ago

Duration 1:50

Police in Quebec searched a condo in Longueuil, near Montreal, in connection with a Canadian woman arrested at the Canada-U.S. border suspected of sending an envelope containing ricin to U.S. President Donald Trump. Court records show the woman spent time in a Texas jail for using a fake driver's licence.

Delivering his ruling, Schroeder citedtheUnited States'history of assassination attempts on presidents.He also pointed to the ongoingMeng Wanzhoucase as an example of how long extradition casescan take.

Lynchsuggested more charges are coming for Ferrier.

While the letter for Trump was being investigated, the FBI was alerted to six additional letters sent to Texas addresses earlier that week, according to theaffidavit.

They were addressed to officials connected to the facilities Ferrier had been housed at during a brief stint in detention back in early 2019. Those letters alsocontained white powder and featured threateninglanguage similartothe letter sentto Trump, says theaffidavit.

The document said four of the letters sent to San Antonio had latent fingerprints on themwhichmatchedFerrier's prints in the FBI database,

Ferrier was arrested in Mission, Texas in March 2019 and accused of illegally carrying a firearm andholding a fake driver's licence, court records show.

She pleaded not guilty and the charge eventually wasdismissed because it was her first offence. She spent 20 days in jail and, according to the affidavit,was eventually released into the care of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.