Photo: © Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
It has been reported that there has been an attempted assassination against President Trump using the deadly poison ricin.
A package addressed to the president was intercepted on its way through the mail system to the White House. Thankfully it was made safe and no one was harmed. Both the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are now searching for the culprit.
The attack comes just weeks ahead of the presidential election and during the most heated political atmosphere in modern United States history, with ongoing civil strife and riots still occurring throughout the country.
Early reports however state that the letter was sent from Canada, and not from within the US.
Ricin is a deadly poison that is derived from castor beans. It has been used by terrorist groups, lone individuals and intelligence services in the past. Most famously, it was used to kill Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident living in London in the 1970s. He was killed when an individual believed to be a Soviet agent stabbed him with a ricin tipped umbrella. He died soon after. If an individual is exposed to ricin, it can kill them within 72 hours. There is no known antidote.
This is not the first time that Trump has been targeted by a ricin package. In 2018, other ricin letters were sent to both Trump and top Pentagon military commanders. William Clyde Allen III, a former Navy veteran from Utah, was later arrested for the crime.
Similarly, in 2014 ricin packages were sent to Barack Obama and other officials. 42-year-old James Everett Dutschke of Mississippi was later convicted of the crime and received a 25-year prison sentence. In 2018 two ISIS supporters in Germany also had a ricin plot foiled before they could carry out the attack.
Many conservative activists have already blamed anti-Trump activists or 'the left' for the attack; however, no evidence of this exists yet.
COMMENTS