Man ‘who sent threatening letter with white powder to Donald Trump Jnr and three others’ is charged

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Daniel Frisello (pictured) has been charged with sending a harmless white powder resembling anthrax to four people. Photo: Daniel Frisello via Facebook

Published: 5:23am, 2 Mar 2018Updated: 5:23am, 2 Mar 2018

Federal prosecutors in Boston on Thursday charged a Massachusetts man with sending a series of threatening letters containing a suspicious powder, including one addressed to US President Donald Trump’s eldest son.

The letter addressed to Donald Trump Jnr led to the Republican president’s daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, being taken to a hospital after opening it on February 12. Two other people also went to the hospital but the white powder in the envelope proved to be harmless.

Prosecutors charged Daniel Frisiello, 24, of Beverly, Massachusetts, with mailing a threat to injure a person as well as false information and hoaxes for sending threatening letters to at least five addresses around the United States, according to court papers.

This booking photo released Thursday, by the Beverly Police Department shows Daniel Frisiello, of Beverly, Massachusetts. Photo: Beverly Police Department via AP

The first letter, sent to Donald Trump Jnr’s address in Manhattan, contained a letter that read in part, “You are an awful, awful person … you are getting what you deserve,” prosecutors said in court papers.

Similar threatening letters were send to Democratic US Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, actor and Republican US House of Representatives candidate Antonio Sabato Jnr, interim US Attorney for California Nicola Hanna and a law professor at Stanford University, prosecutors said.

All five contained threatening messages and a powdery substance that investigators found not to be hazardous.