Federal probe opened into suspicious Arizona Capitol mail

Staff in the Arizona State Capitol Executive Tower back at work today, one day after a suspicious envelope filled with white powder forced an evacuation. Yeah, we first brought you this as breaking news last night, and now we're learning that white substance—it was not toxic—but similar packages were also sent to multiple lawmakers. Fox's Taylor Ward spoke with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fuentes about what happened last night, and she joins us now with more, Taylor. Mark and Christina, Secretary Fuentes says DPS determined that white powder was not hazardous, but they have not identified what exactly it was yet. Fuentes says his office returned to work here at the Executive Tower, business as usual, but with a heightened sense of vigilance. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fuentes says his office tries to prepare for anything during election season, including Thursday's scare. It wasn't like we were expecting it, but if it did happen, we knew how to react. Knowing how to react was critical. When a staff member opened an envelope containing a white powder, it was not addressed to an individual person, but it was addressed to my office here. Fuentes says the employee immediately followed protocol. Only one other member of the office was exposed. They cleared the floor, locked everything down, and once the hazmat team and the police arrived, they collected the evidence. Authorities evacuated the entire executive tower as DPS, the FBI, and Phoenix first responders moved in. The testing by the DPS lab revealed that it was not a hazardous substance, but they haven't told us exactly what it actually is. The FBI is investigating who sent the envelope and whether it's connected to similar incidents nationwide. Staff returned to work Friday with what Fuentes calls heightened vigilance, but says they won't be deterred. It's too bad there's still people that are that are wanting to do stuff like that, but whatever they were trying to do failed because we're going to keep on doing our work. Fuentes says threatening the people who run our elections crosses a dangerous line. When you're threatening staff, when you're threatening elections officials, the people who are actually working to ensure that every American, regardless of their party, gets their vote, that's not political anymore. That's an act against our democracy. And with election day fast approaching, he has this message for voters. I think the number one reaction to this kind of intimidation from voters ought to be participation. We ought to show these folks who would try to commit violence against our systems that we are engaged in them, that we're going to continue to do it, and vote early. Congressional and elections offices in at least fifteen states have reported receiving suspicious mail this week. Live at the state capital, Taylor Wurts, Fox Ten News.