Feds: Man sent white powder letters to Trump Jr., 4 others
WORCESTER, Mass. — A Massachusetts man was charged Thursday with sending threatening letters with white powder to five people, including one to Donald Trump Jr. that landed his wife, Vanessa, in the hospital.
Daniel Frisiello, 24, was arrested at the Beverly home he shares with his parents and is being held behind bars pending a detention hearing on Monday.
Authorities say Frisiello sent five envelopes early last month filled with profanity-laced letters and white substances, which turned out not to be hazardous. The envelopes were postmarked in Boston. The letter to the president’s son was opened by Vanessa Trump on Feb. 12. She was briefly hospitalized after she called 911 and reported she was coughing and felt nauseous.
The Trump letter included a message that said: “I am surprised that your father lets you speak on TV.”
“You make the family idiot, Eric, look smart,” the message said, according to court documents. “This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve,” it said.
Other recipients were Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan; Nicola Hanna, an interim U.S. attorney in California; and Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor who has promoted the effort to recall Judge Aaron Persky.
Persky was criticized in 2016 after he sentenced former swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a trash bin on campus near a fraternity house.
The message Dauber received said: “Since you are going to disrobe Persky, I am going to treat you like ‘Emily Doe.’ Let’s see what kind of sentencing I get for being a rich white male.”
The woman who was sexually assaulted in 2016 was known as Emily Doe to protect her identity.
Another letter containing powder was sent to Antonio Sabato Jr., the Republican former underwear model and soap opera actor who is running for a U.S. House seat in California. Frisiello showed no emotion as he was led into the federal court in Worcester wearing a red polo shirt, dark pants and sneakers with his hands cuffed and ankles shackled. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Garland said family members told officials Frisiello may be on medications for suicidal thoughts. Relatives of Frisiello who were in the courtroom declined to speak to reporters.