The FBI arrested Robin Patrick Martin, 67, of Oklahoma City, early Monday, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors charged him with conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes, and mailing threatening communications, over threatening letters mailed to state election officials, members of Congress, the FBI and others. Many carried white powder, later determined to be non-hazardous.

Fox News reports the criminal complaint, filed in the Western District of Oklahoma, links more than 700 suspicious mailings sent in 2026 to one sender, with fingerprints and surveillance footage tying Martin to them. The complaint says the mailings date back to September 2024, and investigators found similar mailings addressed to election officials in all 50 states.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the letters went to well over 100 locations, including state secretary offices and election offices. Surveillance footage showed a vehicle associated with Martin at Postal Service mailboxes in Oklahoma City, Dallas and San Antonio in October, the FBI said. Martin made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shon Erwin in Oklahoma City, FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reports.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg put it plainly: "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." The Postal Inspection Service said it recovered the majority of the mailings before they reached their intended recipients.

The case turned on a letter in Oklahoma. The Justice Department says the Oklahoma State Election Board notified the FBI this year that it had received a threatening letter containing white powder. The FBI and the Postal Inspection Service had already been investigating similar letters sent to state election officials, including that board, since 2024, and they determined the letter was part of hundreds mailed to state election boards, members of Congress, election pollsters, media organizations and others.

The complaint gives a picture of the early mailings, Fox News reports. The 2024 letters carried white powder and a three-page letter the writer titled a declaration of war, and the writer threatened that if certain demands were not met, the next mailing would go to thousands of destinations and would not be flour. An envelope addressed to the Oklahoma State Election Board listed as its sender a group calling itself the United States Traitor Elimination Army, according to the complaint. Of the mailings addressed to election officials in all 50 states, 49 were recovered from recipients or intercepted in the mail, and investigators said Martin's fingerprints were found on a letter sent to Director Patel.

The FBI said the powders tested so far were non-hazardous substances such as yeast or flour, though not every letter has been fully tested. Patel said the suspect had avoided authorities until now and that the Biden administration failed to catch him. The FBI, the Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Oklahoma City Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, including the Texas Rangers, are investigating, with help from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma, the Justice Department said. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma is prosecuting with assistance from the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section, and the investigation is ongoing.

The FBI and the Postal Inspection Service had chased these letters since 2024. The arrest came the Monday before Election Day.

The FBI's Oklahoma City office says the mailings created fear and diverted resources, even though the powder tested non-hazardous.