WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Wednesday confirmed a letter containing a suspicious substance addressed to the president was caught a a federal processing facility miles away from the White House grounds.
"There was a letter sent to, addressed to the president that at an offsite mail facility was noticed to have contained a suspicious substance. Tests were undertaken," Carney said. "The president has been briefed on these letters. he was briefed last night and again this morning."
The FBI and other federal agencies are investigating a string of letters containing what preliminary tests have shown is the poison ricin sent to Senators on Capitol Hill. As with the White House letter, the correspondence was caught miles away from its intended recipient in a facility expressly designed to screen federal mail before delivery.
Carney said that as far as he knows White House mail continues to be processed regularly following the discovery of the suspicious substance.
"Not that i'm aware of," Carney told reporters when asked if mail to the White House had been temporarily halted. "The procedures that have been in place for some time now ensure that mail sent to the White House complex is processed off-site to mitigate risk to the general public and individuals who might be designated recipients of that mail. For any adjustments in the procedure, if there are any, I'd refer you to the Secret Service."
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed.