A Canadian woman was sentenced to over 21 years in prison after a failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
55-year-old Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier was sentenced by U.S. authorities to 262 months behind bars followed by a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty earlier this year to prohibitions concerning biological weapons in two separate criminal cases in D.C. and Texas.
BREAKING: A Canadian woman, Pascale Ferrier, 56, has just been sentenced to 22 years in the US for sending a ricin-laced letter to @realDonaldTrump in 2020. After pleading guilty to biological weapons charges in January, the letter targeting Trump was intercepted before reaching… pic.twitter.com/bQOZaFp4Ie
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) August 17, 2023
“Ferrier admitted that she made ricin at her residence in Quebec, Canada, in September 2020. Ricin is a deadly poison made from castor beans,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. “Ferrier placed the ricin toxin in envelopes containing letters she wrote to then-President Trump at the White House and to eight Texas State law enforcement officials.”
Ferrier, who is a dual citizen of Canada and France, said in a court hearing on Thursday that she regretted not being able to poison Trump and “stop” him.
“I consider myself to be an activist, not a terrorist,” she said while wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. “The only regret I have is that it didn’t work and that I couldn’t stop Trump.”
The Canadian was previously detained in Texas for unlawfully carrying a weapon and using a fake driver’s license. She has also shown displeasure towards Trump, tweeting in September 2020 that someone “please shoot [Trump] in the face.”
“The letters in the envelopes contained threatening language, and the letter addressed to then-President Trump instructed him to ‘[give] up and remove [his] application for this election,’” the DOJ said. “Ferrier mailed each of the threatening ricin letters from Canada to the United States.”
In her letter, Ferrier expressed his dissatisfaction with the Trump administration and called the former president “The Ugly Tyrant Clown.”
“You ruin USA and lead them to disaster. I have U.S. cousins, then I don’t want the next 4 years with you as President. Give up and remove your application for this election!” the letter read. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll find better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I’ll be able to come.”
After sending the letters to the Trump administration, Ferrier reportedly drove from Canada to New York on September 20, 2020, where border patrol agents discovered her in possession of a loaded gun, a large quantity of ammunition, and other weapons before arresting her.
