A Canadian woman who sent letters containing homemade ricin to then-President Donald Trump and eight Texas law enforcement officials was sentenced today to nearly 22 years in prison.
Pascale Ferrier sent threatening letters containing the poison in September 2020. Ferrier, a dual citizen of France and Canada, made ricin at her home in Quebec, Canada, and put the poison in letters addressed to Trump at the White House and to various Texas officials.
US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, who was appointed by Trump, sentenced Ferrier to 262 months in prison and imposed a lifetime sentence of supervised release.
Ferrier, who appeared at the hearing in an orange prison jumpsuit, read a rambling statement in which she expressed no remorse for her actions and called herself a “peaceful person.”
“I consider myself to be an activist, not a terrorist. Activists are constructive, terrorists are destructive. The only regret I have is that it didn’t work and that I couldn’t stop Trump,” Ferrier said.
In applying the federal sentencing guidelines for Ferrier’s offenses, Friedrich took into account the fact that Ferrier’s conduct “involved, or was intended to promote, a federal crime of terrorism,” which increased the potential sentence.
“There is absolutely no place for politically motivated violence in the United States of America,” said assistant US attorney Michael Friedman.
The judge concurred. “This was potentially deadly,” Friedrich said. “It’s harmful to you, harmful to society, harmful to the potential victims.”
