The FBI and NYPD have launched a probe after a death threat was mailed to Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney investigating former President Donald Trump, via a letter that came Friday with a small amount of white powder. "ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the letter read, sources tell NBC News. A Bragg spokesperson tells the AP that the letter was isolated and removed by police and environmental protection officials, and that "no dangerous substance" was found after testing. Officials say there were no injuries and that an evacuation wasn't necessary.
The letter was postmarked on Tuesday and appeared to have been mailed from Orlando, Florida, sources note. A senior law enforcement source tells NBC that Bragg's office and the DA himself have received "several hundred threats" in recent weeks as he continues to investigate Trump regarding alleged hush money paid out to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Of those threats, at least two dozen of them were said to be "directly threatening serious harm" to Bragg, the source notes. The incident came after Trump had earlier that day on social media predicted "death & destruction" over possible charges against him.
The former president also posted a photo of himself clutching a baseball bat, set next to an image of Bragg; he has since deleted that post. On Friday evening, a spokesman for New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement that "no public official should ever be subject to threats for doing his or her job," per ABC News. In his own memo, Bragg on Friday thanked his nearly 1,600 employees for their "strength and professionalism," and acknowledged the "offensive or threatening phone calls or emails" some had received. He assured them that their safety was his No. 1 concern, but that "we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly." (More Alvin Bragg stories.)