A police investigation is currently looking into a suspicious package that was mailed to the home of Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), ABC News reports.
In a statement posted Monday on Facebook, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said they were contacted about the package by the U.S. Capitol Police earlier that same day. The package was taken away from Senator Paul’s home and sent to the Bowling Green Fire Department for secure analysis. Although the search found the package’s contents to be “non-toxic,” the department said that “further analysis will be conducted on both the substance and the package.”
The FBI also released a statement confirming that it would be cooperating with the Sheriff’s Office “by providing forensic and technical support for this investigation.”
Responding to the incident, Senator Paul tweeted Monday night that “I take these threats immensely seriously,” and that “as a repeated target of violence, it is reprehensible that Twitter allows C-list celebrities to encourage violence against me and my family.”
Paul was referencing a recent tirade from a musician named Richard Marx, who said on Twitter that “if I ever meet Rand Paul’s neighbor, I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume.” Marx was referring to Rene Boucher, Paul’s next-door neighbor who violently and suddenly assaulted Paul in 2017 while Paul was mowing his lawn. Boucher charged across the lawn and tackled Paul, leading to Paul’s hospitalization with five broken ribs, and eventually having part of one lung removed due to internal injuries. Boucher pled guilty to assaulting a member of Congress, and was ultimately sentenced to eight months in prison.
Paul has also been the target of other acts of violence. He was one of the Republican members of Congress present at the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting, although he himself was not injured. In 2020, as Paul and his wife were leaving the Republican National Convention, they were assaulted by far-left domestic terrorists affiliated with Black Lives Matter and Antifa.