OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday, November 3, unsealed charges against an Oklahoma City man accused of mailing hundreds of threatening letters containing white powder to election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news organisations and federal law-enforcement offices across the United States ahead of both the 2024 and the 2026 elections. Robin Patrick Martin, 67, of Oklahoma City, is charged with conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes, and with mailing threatening communications, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. FBI agents arrested Martin early on Monday, November 2 — one day before Americans voted in the midterm elections — after an investigation that had run since 2024.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Investigators believe more than 700 mailings this fall alone were associated with the same sender, addressed to election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news media and federal law enforcement, FBI agent David Cole said in an affidavit reported by the Associated Press. The letters went to well over 100 locations, including multiple state secretaries of state and election offices, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. The powder inside turned out to be non-hazardous — laboratory testing identified yeast or flour in the samples tested, though not every letter has been fully tested, the FBI said in its court filing.
Source: Associated Press via WCIA
An arrest on the eve of Election Day
The most recent wave surfaced on October 13, 2026, when the Oklahoma State Election Board notified the FBI that it had received a threatening letter containing white powder, the Justice Department said. Federal authorities had announced in October that they were investigating letters with “suspicious substances” mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide and urged recipients to treat them as “potentially hazardous.” The mailings forced the evacuation of election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma in October, and states from Idaho to Florida said their election offices either received letters or had them intercepted by the Postal Service.
“As alleged, Martin mailed letters containing white powder to hundreds of state and federal officials, a calculated attempt to terrorize public servants,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “These officials were left to open those letters not knowing if the powder inside could sicken or even kill them, and that was the evident intent.” U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma added: “Threatening election officials and attempting to intimidate public servants is a serious federal offense and will not be tolerated.” Both statements were issued by the Justice Department on Tuesday; the charges are allegations, and Martin is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Fingerprints, cameras and invisible ink
According to the FBI affidavit reported by AP, the case was built piece by piece. Agents said they have video evidence of Martin's car stopping in October at mailboxes at Postal Service sites in Oklahoma City, Dallas and San Antonio. Investigators lifted his fingerprints from a letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel — whose first name was written on it as “Kashyap.” Walmart records, the FBI said, showed purchases of common household goods such as turmeric and vinegar, which investigators say were used to create invisible ink that could only be read under ultraviolet light. The 2024 mailings included a three-page letter declaring war, and the sender used a return address reading “U.S.T.E.A., United States Traitor Elimination Army, Takoma Park, MD.” A common message across the 2024 and 2026 letters warned recipients about upcoming arrests for treason “or worse!!”
The FBI also said it believes Martin, posing as a man using the name George Livingston, posted a message to a Democratic Socialists of America email list in October warning that members were traitors and eligible for arrest for treason if they voted in the November 3 election — a post investigators say helped them, with the organisation apparently assisting the inquiry. Online court records did not list an attorney who could comment on Martin's behalf, AP reported, and several relatives did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Martin faces two federal counts: conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes — the charge used for fake threats designed to trigger emergency responses — and mailing threatening communications. A criminal complaint is only an allegation: the Justice Department itself notes that Martin is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Background: why powder letters paralyse an office
A letter containing unknown powder is treated as a potential biological attack until a laboratory says otherwise — a protocol that dates to the 2001 anthrax mailings in the United States. That is why a single envelope can empty an election office, bring out hazardous-materials teams and halt mail processing for hours, even when the powder proves to be flour or yeast. Election officials have been a growing target of threats and harassment in recent election cycles, and the Justice Department says this case is part of the nationwide National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 initiative, a White House-directed interagency effort aimed at political violence. Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale said postal inspectors and their partners “identified related mailings and recovered the majority of these mailings before they reached their intended recipients.”
For Awaaz Punjab's readers — Punjabi and other South Asian families across California, New Jersey, New York, Washington and other states whose election offices were among those targeted nationwide, and the many readers who work in trucking, warehouses, post offices and mail handling — the case is a reminder of how much of the election system runs on ordinary mail: ballots, voter notices and official letters all move through the same network these hoax letters abused. “No one should have to wonder whether a letter in the mail poses a danger,” said Doug Goodwater, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge in Oklahoma City. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said his team had been “working around the clock with our law enforcement partners to put this defendant behind bars,” adding: “We will not tolerate anyone who attempts to use fear as a weapon.”
What happens next
Martin appeared on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shon T. Erwin for his initial appearance in federal court in Oklahoma City, and court records reported on Tuesday say he was ordered detained pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for November 9. The case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Oklahoma City Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, including the Texas Rangers, and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma with the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. Investigators are still intercepting and testing letters, and officials have not said whether every mailing in the series has been accounted for.