Pascale Ferrier, a dual citizen of France and Canada, has been handed a 22-year prison sentence for her plot to target former US President Donald Trump using letters contaminated with ricin. Having pleaded guilty to charges related to biological weapons in January, Ferrier expressed remorse for her failed plan to disrupt Trump’s activities.
The scheme involved sending a ricin-laced letter to Donald Trump in 2020. However, the FBI intercepted the letter before it could reach the White House. Ferrier, a resident of Quebec, voiced her regret in court for not succeeding in her plan and asserted that she saw herself as an activist rather than a terrorist.
Ferrier stated during court proceedings, “I want to find peaceful means to achieve my goals.”
Her fingerprints were discovered on the letter that urged Trump, who was campaigning for the presidency once again, to withdraw from the race. The letter contained derogatory language, referring to Trump as “The Ugly Tyrant Clown.”
District Judge Dabney Friedrich imposed a 22-year prison term on the 56-year-old Ferrier, which will be followed by her deportation from the US upon completion of the sentence. Should she ever return to the United States, she will be subjected to lifetime supervision.
Judge Friedrich emphasized the potential danger of Ferrier’s actions, describing them as “potentially deadly and harmful to you, harmful to society, harmful to the potential victims.”
Ferrier also confessed to dispatching comparable contaminated letters to eight law enforcement officers based in Texas. The US Justice Department revealed that in 2019, Ferrier spent around ten weeks in the state and was arrested for illegally carrying a weapon and driving without a valid license. She attributed her detention to those officials.
Pascale Ferrier was apprehended while crossing the border into Buffalo, New York, in September 2020. At the time of her arrest, she was found to be in possession of a gun, a knife, and ammunition.
Later, Ferrier confessed to producing ricin, a lethal substance derived from castor beans’ waste material, and contaminating the letters at her residence in Quebec.
Ricin is a potent toxin with no known antidote, and exposure to it can result in death within 36 to 72 hours.
