The envelope never made it to Judge Arthur Engoron, but caused an emergency response at the courthouse.

The envelope never made it to Judge Arthur Engoron, but caused an emergency response at the courthouse.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who handed down a $355 million ruling against former President Donald Trump in his civil fraud trial, was sent an envelope containing white powder on Wednesday, causing an emergency response at his New York City courthouse, a source with direct knowledge of the incident confirmed to NBC News.

The judge and his staff were not exposed to the substance — his mail is pre-screened on a daily basis and was intercepted before it reached him, the source said. A court officer opened the letter and powder fell out, according to the New York Police Department, exposing the officer and another court employee to the substance, the source said. The New York City Fire Department said the two refused any medical treatment. The threatening letter was first reported by ABC News.

The threat is far from the first against the judge. Police on Long Island responded to a bomb threat at his home last month, hours before closing arguments in the Trump trial were scheduled to begin.

  • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
    201·
    9 months ago

    I feel like it would be pretty easy to untraceably send a single letter. False return address, address written slowly with your alternate hand (or printed), dropped in an unmonitored street mailbox a few hours away from your home…how would USPIS find such a person?

    • Bocky@lemmy.world
      211·
      9 months ago

      In that situation, they wouldn’t find them.

      But in many other situations, criminals do dumb things like writing their return address.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
        131·
        9 months ago

        Letter boxes don’t stamp the specific location in most places. And even if they did, you could just use an outgoing box at a large community, or someone’s house mailbox.

            • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
              22·
              9 months ago

              The ones I mentioned pepper almost every London junction. In metro areas, there’s also loads of private installations that can be looked at to help identify and track individuals.

              • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
                78·
                9 months ago

                Well, maybe in the police-state UK. But we don’t have that over here. And even if we did, as I said, they couldn’t narrow down the exact box in the postal code and if it was in a heavy traffic are there could be thousands of people dropping mail off daily.

    • sizzler@lemmy.world
      142·
      9 months ago

      Printed? Your printer leaves a unique pattern on all its documents. Oooh

      Dropped in a mailbox, oooh the neighbour across the road has a ring doorbell

      Didn’t turn off your phone? Ooooh

      • Echo Dot
        11·
        9 months ago

        Let’s be honest though these people probably took a photo of them posting it, and now it’s on up on twitter.

      • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        9 months ago

        People underestimate how prevalent camera doorbells are now thanks to ring. At my girlfriends place about 75 percent of her neighbors on the block have em. Just installed a eufy for my mom a little while ago and she’s super untech savvy. Her apt building also has about 60 percent door cams.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
          1·
          9 months ago

          Super helpful tool with tracking bad guys…but also it’s just so creepy and dystopian.

          I was trying to see who a stray dog belonged to in my own neighborhood, and pushing the button and talking into these little lenses on every door was so weird.

          Neighborhoods are now enclaves full of suspicious hermits…

    • Echo Dot
      9·
      9 months ago

      I just like the idea that somebody might be stupid enough to put their real return address on the envelope, and your suggestion is the first time that it’s occurred to them that they might not need to do that.