FBI intercepts threatening letter intended for Utah election workers

The FBI intercepted a threatening letter intended for Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s staff office on Friday morning, according to a statement released by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
The letter contained a white powder and was signed, “United States Traitor Elimination Army,” the statement said. The FBI seized the letter in Reno, Nevada, where there is a U.S. Postal Service distribution center. Law enforcement officials are investigating the threat and testing to identify the substance.
“This incident is the latest tactic in a nationwide trend of threats and intimidation toward election officials. But we will not be intimidated,” Henderson said. “I am grateful for the swift action of postal workers and law enforcement and the perseverance of election workers who show up and do their jobs every day despite all the rhetoric and risk. We love them. We owe them. They are heroes.”
The chairs of both the state Republican and Democratic parties responded to news of the threat on Friday.
“This is ridiculous and inexcusable,” said Rob Axson, chair of the Utah Republican Party. “There is no place for violence and dangerous intimidation or threats.”
Axson said the nation’s “founding principles celebrate discourse and disagreement.”
“I commend all those who are investigating threats and attacks against candidates and officials. It doesn’t matter where on the political spectrum one finds themselves, this behavior of violence and political terrorism we see playing out these last few months is inexcusable evil and unjustifiable,” he said.
Utah Democratic Party Chair Diane Lewis said she “wholeheartedly” condemned the attempt at intimidating the state’s election workers.
“The professionals who handle our votes are integral to the democratic process, and threats made against election workers undermine the foundations of our democracy,” she said. “I am grateful that those at the Lieutenant Governor’s Office are safe, and that United States Postal Workers and the FBI were able to address the situation.”
Lewis said the “culture of political intimidation, stoked” by former President Donald Trump “must end.”
“Election-denying conspiracy theories put us all at risk, and I call on people of all political affiliations to condemn those who spread them,” she said.
Lewis did not address the recent assassination attempts against the former president.
The FBI has launched an investigation after suspicious packages were sent to election offices in more than 20 states this week, according to reporting from CNN, The Associated Press and Axios.
The states include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming and now Utah.
During his PBS press conference on Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox expressed concern over the increase in threats of political violence in Utah, saying there has been a “significant increase in threats of violence” against Utah officials, Cox said, including to himself and his family, and against lawmakers and judges.
“(I’m) concerned about our country right now — the extremes that we’re seeing in political discourse that is leading, of course, to political violence,” Cox said.
As of July 15, the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center had recorded 73 threat incidents toward Utah elected officials in 2024. Despite only covering 7½ months of the year, this total far exceeds the 49 threats recorded in 2023 and the 55 incidents recorded in 2022 and 2021.
The number of threats against members of Congress have have increased tenfold over the last several years, jumping from 900 in 2016 to nearly 4,000 in the first year of the Trump presidency, to over 9,600 in 2021 following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, per reports.
The number of United States Capitol Police threat assessment cases fell to 7,500 in 2022 and rose again to 8,000 in 2023, the agency reported. Federal judges have also experienced an increase in serious threats against federal judges across the country — rising from 179 in 2019 to 457 in 2023. More than 40% of state legislators have experienced direct threats over the past three years, according to one national survey.
This story has been updated.