Woman sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for trying to mail Trump ricin

A woman who mailed then-President Trump a threatening letter that contained ricin weeks before the 2020 election was sentenced to 262 months in prison on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced.

Driving the news: Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 55, pleaded guilty earlier this year to violating federal laws on biological weapons and admitted that she made the toxin at her Quebec, Canada, home and sent the letter to the White House in September 2020.

• Ferrier, who has dual French and Canadian citizenship, will face a lifetime of supervision after she's released from prison.

Catch up quick: Ferrier was arrested in Buffalo, New York, in September 2020 while trying to cross into Canada.

• She also sent letters containing ricin, which is made from castor beans, to eight Texas law enforcement officials as she believe they were connected to her detainment in the state for 10 weeks in 2019, per a DOJ statement.

The big picture: Ferrier also posted threatening messages on social media around that time, including one in which she proposed that someone should "please shoot [T]rump in the face."

• The letter to Trump told him to "give up and remove your application for this election."
• It also said that if the ricin failed, "I'll find better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I'll be able to come."
• When she was arrested, police found a loaded firearm, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other weapons among her possessions.

Go deeper: A first-of-its-kind database tracks threats against public officials