The Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington was briefly evacuated Wednesday as police investigated two vials of blood that had been addressed to former President Donald Trump following the presumptive presidential nominee’s takeover of the party’s national apparatus.
Hazardous materials teams were called after the vials were discovered, according to the US Capitol Police, who said they would continue to investigate. It was unclear if anyone came into contact with the blood and to whom it belonged.
The vials were addressed to Trump, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to discuss it publicly. It was unclear if any messages accompanied the vials explaining why they were sent.
Spokespeople for the Republican National Committee and the U.S. Secret Service did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The Metropolitan Police Department and the local fire department referred comments to the Capitol Police.
Earlier Wednesday, Capitol Police issued a statement warning people to avoid the block where the RNC is located. The House sergeant-at-arms, chief of protocol and law enforcement for the U.S. House of Representatives, sent information warning of traffic restrictions in the area “due to police activity in the RNC.”
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Trump’s hand-picked leaders, including his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the party’s national vice chair and former North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, as Republican National Committee chairman, recently took charge of the Republican National Committee, completing his takeover of the national party as he closes in on a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination. A senior Trump campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita, took over as chief of staff at the Republican National Committee.
Wednesday’s situation comes less than two months before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is scheduled to become the party’s official candidate for 2024 and where significant protests are expected. According to a letter sent last month to the Secret Service, Republican National Committee lawyer Todd Steggerda asked officials to keep protesters further away from the site than originally planned, arguing that an existing plan “creates a high and unsustainable security risk for the attending public. “
Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and Price reported from New York. AP writers Lisa Mascaro, Ashraf Khalil and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed reporting.
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