Eric Trump Sent Threatening Letter: Donald Trump’s Son Sent Threatening Letter With White Powder

Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s second oldest son, was sent a threatening letter containing a white powdery substance on Thursday night. The letter was sent to Eric’s Central Park apartment address. His wife was the one who opened the letter containing the substance, TMZ reports.

The Secret Service, FBI, and NYPD flocked to the residence to investigate the correspondence that was postmarked in Massachusetts. The letter threatened Eric that if his father didn’t drop out of the race, bad things would happen to the Trump family. Upon further examination, it was concluded that the white powder was harmless. Despite the powder being nothing of harm, it was unsettling.

Threatening piece of mail sent to @realDonaldTrump‘s son, Eric Trump https://t.co/wGKHWA2LfY pic.twitter.com/42fv0vERZa

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 18, 2016

ABC News received a statement from NYPD following the incident.

“At approximately 7:15 p.m., the NYPD responded to a residential building at 100 Central Park South to investigate a report of a suspicious letter received by a tenant. The letter has been removed and is being examined by law enforcement authorities. No injuries have been reported in connection with this incident.”

According to ABC News’ coverage, the handwritten note read, “If you father does not drop out of the race, the next envelope won’t be a fake.”

The letter was signed “X”.

As it currently stands, U.S. Secret Service protection is only provided to Donald Trump.

“Protection is for him alone at this point,” a source close to the situation said.

Briefings were held for the whole Trump family to inform them of how to properly handle mail, the source revealed. The Trumps were told to call on security personnel to notify local police, which in this case was the NYPD, with any emergency. The NYPD immediately alerted the Secret Service. Right now both groups are still investigating the threatening letter sent to Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump.

Lara was in the kitchen when she opened the envelope and the powdery substance fell out.

As a precautionary measure, the NYPD checked other known Trump locations, including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York is said to be leading the investigation into the letter and is also working with the Secret Service, the Postal Inspector, and the NYPD.

Former Homeland Security undersecretary and current ABC News consultant John Cohen believes the visibility of Trump’s children on the campaign trail has increased the potential of turning them into targets.

“The Trump campaign has been very visible, has been described by a number of people as being divisive, and just as we have seen strong actions by his supporters, law enforcement would expect strong reactions from his detractors,” Cohen said.

Cohen added that this heated campaign “could also mean the potential for acts of violence against the candidate and those associated with the candidate.”

NYPD investigate suspicious letter sent to Eric Trump: https://t.co/qGJ2RtGAoT pic.twitter.com/9Sa5H5BqKe

— ABC News (@ABC) March 18, 2016

Eric Trump is frequently spotted near his dad during press conferences and victory speeches on the campaign trail. Donald Trump is the Republican presidential front-runner, and the political party is just as vexed over his popularity as the opposition to Trump’s aim for the White House. Republicans are gathered in clandestine meetings in an all-out effort to topple Trump. There is expected to be a brokered convention this summer when rivals hope to oust Donald Trump from being on the general election ballot in November.

True to their word, the hacker group Anonymous managed to breach Donald Trump’s online security on Thursday, when they reportedly obtained his social security and phone number that was released to the public.

Cohen went on to explain that he doesn’t think there’s a direct link between the threatening letter sent to Eric Trump and Anonymous. He said although their motives are similar, it’s “unlikely that they worked together.”

[Photo by Richard Drew/AP]