Quebec woman who mailed poison to Trump pleads guilty

A Quebec woman accused of sending a poisoned letter to former U.S. president Donald Trump sounded resigned to her fate Wednesday as she grudgingly pleaded guilty to biological weapons charges and agreed to a sentence of nearly 22 years behind bars.

“I need to move on now,” Pascale Ferrier, 55, told U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich as she acknowledged the details of the case during a hearing in Washington, D.C., where she has been in custody since the spring of 2021.

The guilty plea also included eight charges from a separate case in Texas, where Ferrier sent similar letters to police officers, supervisors and prison officials after spending 10 weeks in jail in the state in 2019 on charges that were ultimately dismissed.

Friedrich made clear that she would not sign off on the sentencing recommendation in Ferrier’s plea agreement, which includes a prison term of 21 years and 10 months, until she receives a presentencing report in late April.

Ferrier, who holds an engineering degree from France, crafted her poison of choice — ricin — at her Montreal-area home from scratch by using castor beans.

Ferrier was arrested at the Peace Bridge Canada-U.S. border crossing in Buffalo on Sept. 20, 2020, and charged with sending a letter to Trump containing the poison ricin. The letter was intercepted Sept. 18 before it could be delivered to the White House.

According to prosecutors, the letter to Trump described the poison as a “special gift” and concluded with a threat to “find a better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I’ll be able to come.”