PHOENIX — Phoenix police say there was no substance found inside a suspicious envelope sent to Kari Lake's campaign headquarters last week.
Kari Lake's campaign said an envelope containing "suspicious white powder" was opened at her campaign headquarters in Phoenix Saturday.
The Phoenix Fire Department said they were called to the building near 40th Street and Camelback Road on Sunday.
Phoenix police initially said there were suspicious items found inside the mail.
On Friday, Phoenix police said the state lab tested the items and turned them over, and determined there was no substance inside.
Immediately following the incident, Kari Lake's campaign released the following statement:
Yesterday, a member of the Kari Lake staff opened an envelope delivered to our campaign office that contained suspicious white powder. It was one of two envelopes that were confiscated by law enforcement and sent to professionals at Quantico for examination, and we are awaiting details. The staff member is currently under medical supervision. Just two days before Election Day, our campaign headquarters remains shut down. We look forward to law enforcement completing their investigation as quickly as possible. Rest assured, we are taking this security threat incredibly seriously and we are thankful for the Phoenix PD, FBI, first responders, bomb squad, and HazMat crews that responded to this incident. In the meantime, know that our resolve has never been higher and we cannot be intimidated. We continue to push full speed ahead to win this election on Tuesday.
Kari Lake's campaign office sent the following statement from Head of Security Scott Masino in response to the investigation's findings:
Last week, our campaign received three letters with no return addresses. The first, which was opened by a campaign staffer last Friday, contained a white powdery substance along with a hateful letter. The staffer immediately threw the contents away. The staffer was unfamiliar with the protocol for security situations and did not notify senior staff until the next day, upon which I took the lead as head of security and immediately notified the Phoenix police department. Phoenix PD arrived on scene. By that point, the office trash had already been emptied. Nevertheless, given the contents of the first letter, the Phoenix PD decided to treat this case as a suspicious substance incident. Phoenix PD made the decision to bring in the bomb squad and FBI, and sent the remaining two letters to the lab to be examined. We have since learned that those two remaining letters had no substances inside as the first did. We remain incredibly thankful for law enforcement’s dedicated work on this case to keep our office and our staff safe, and are thankful that no one was harmed.
