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William Clyde Allen III was arrested on Wednesday at his home in
Logan, Utah, and will be charged on Friday, said Melodie Rydalch,
a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Aside from Trump, Allen is believed to have sent the letters
containing ground castor seeds to FBI Director Christopher Wray,
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral John Richardson, according to a probable cause statement
filed in Utah state court on Wednesday.
Allen mailed the envelopes on Sept. 24, the statement said.
The letters were intercepted and no one was hurt, authorities
said. The letter addressed to Trump never entered the White
House, the U.S. Secret Service has said.
Ricin is found naturally in castor seeds but it takes a
deliberate act to convert the seeds into a biological weapon.
Ricin can cause death within 36 to 72 hours of exposure to an
amount as small as a pinhead. No known antidote exists.
The probable cause statement did not list a motive in the case.
It was filed by an officer with the Utah State Bureau of
Investigation and listed Allen's alleged offense as the threat
of terrorism.
It was not clear if Allen has obtained an attorney. He was
ordered held in jail on bail of $25,000.
Allen served in the U.S. Navy from October 1998 until October
2002, leaving the service as a seaman apprentice, the
second-lowest rank, according to the U.S. Navy Office of
Information.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Phil
Berlowitz and Lisa Shumaker)
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