Sen. Rand Paul.Photo: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images
A suspicious package with a threatening note and white powder was sent Monday to Sen. Rand Paul’s home in Kentucky, his office told reporters.
Paul’s wife, Kelley, wrote in a tweet that she discovered the package at their home and called the FBI, who is investigating the incident alongside the U.S. Capitol Police.
“An initial test determined the substance is not dangerous,” the Capitol police told PEOPLE in a statement. “As a precaution, it was taken to a lab for further testing.”
Paul,who was injuredafter his neighbor attacked him in 2017, wrote in his own tweet that “I take these threats immensely seriously.”
The senator suffered five broken ribs in the 2017 attack, according toThe New York Times.
Fox NewsreportedTuesday that the package found at the Pauls' home featured a message that read “I’ll finish what your neighbor started you m———–.”
The edited image on the outside of the package included a gun pointing at the senator’s head.Politicodescribed the package as a “large envelope” andreportedthat the sender was not yet known.
“This is an open investigation,” the Capitol Police told PEOPLE.
A spokesperson for the FBI did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Paul’s office also did not immediately return a message.
Sen. Rand Paul.NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
Paul has most recently emerged as a leading critic of health guidelines around theCOVID-19 pandemic. He has gotten intomultiple argumentswith Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious disease, over scientific findings about the virus and over recommendations meant to help slow infections.
The Republican becamethe first senator to test positivefor COVID-19 last March, after he was the only senator to vote against the first pandemic relief bill.
Paul’s infection worried colleagues at the time because he had been on Capitol Hill, attending lunch meetings and using the Senate gym.
Sen. Rand Paul.GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Paul, an ophthalmologist, has said that he will not get vaccinated because he previously contracted the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people should get vaccinated whether they’ve had the virus or not “because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19.”
source: people.com
