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Case No. DHF-037 | Subject: Robin Patrick Martin, 67 | Date: September 2024 (first reported mailings); October 2026 (latest mailings); 1 November 2026 (charges filed); 3 November 2026 (case unsealed, initial court appearance) | Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, with mailings reported across the United States | Status: CHARGED
Posted: 4 November 2026
Status stamp: CHARGED
Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Robin Patrick Martin, any recipient of a letter, any investigator, any official, or any real person, and no image depicts any letter, powder, or act of violence.
Caption: Case card for DHF-037 — Robin Martin case, Oklahoma City. Status: CHARGED.
| Case File No. | DHF-037 |
| Subject | Robin Patrick Martin, 67, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA |
| Date | Around 16 September 2024 (first mailings reported by multiple state election officials); October 2026 (latest mailings); 1 November 2026 (criminal complaint filed); 2 November 2026 (arrest); 3 November 2026 (case made public and initial court appearance) |
| Location | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, with letters reported by election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news organisations and federal law enforcement across the United States |
| Status | CHARGED |
| Investigating authorities | Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the United States Postal Inspection Service and other federal and local agencies named in reporting of the investigation |
| Charged person | Robin Patrick Martin, 67, arrested 2 November 2026. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. |
| Charges filed 1 November 2026 | One count of conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes, and one count of mailing threatening communications, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma |
| What the FBI alleges | That more than 700 mailings, containing a white powdery substance and threatening messages about treason, appeared to be associated with the same sender in 2024 and again in 2026; that powder tested so far was yeast or flour, while not all powder has been fully tested |
| Court position at publication | Martin appeared in court for the first time on 3 November 2026 and was returned to custody; prosecutors asked that he remain in custody while awaiting trial, and a detention hearing was set for 9 November 2026. No plea outcome, trial, or verdict is reported in any source relied on here. |
| One-line summary | On 3 November 2026, the day of the United States midterm elections, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against Robin Patrick Martin, 67, of Oklahoma City, alleging that he mailed more than 700 letters containing a white powder and treason warnings to election officials and other public figures ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections; the powder tested so far was yeast or flour, and Martin is charged, not convicted. |
Why this file is stamped CHARGED: The stamp records only the procedural position as it stands on 3 November 2026. A charge is an accusation, not a conviction. No trial has taken place, no verdict has been reached, and no plea outcome is reported in any source relied on here. Martin is presumed innocent. If a court accepts a plea, returns a verdict, dismisses any count, or otherwise changes the position, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped — never quietly rewritten.
In September 2024, in the weeks before the United States presidential election, election officials in more than one state opened mail they had not expected. Inside, according to the FBI account reported by several outlets, was a white powdery substance, and with it a message. The first reports clustered around 16 September 2024, when multiple state election officials reported receiving mail containing messages and the then-mysterious powder. What made the mailings hard to dismiss at a glance was the combination: an unknown powder in an envelope is treated as a possible hazard until it is tested, whatever it later turns out to be, and the messages that came with it warned their recipients about treason.
That is the pattern at the centre of this file, and it is worth stating its shape before its details. The FBI says the same pattern appeared twice: in 2024, before the presidential election, and again in 2026, before the midterm elections held on 3 November 2026. In both rounds, the letters are alleged to have carried threatening language about arrest for treason, and a white powder. In both rounds, the powder that has been tested so far has turned out to be harmless — yeast or flour — while the FBI is careful to add that not all of the powder has been fully tested. And in both rounds, the recipients were not a single office or a single state, but a spread of public-facing people and institutions: state election officials, members of Congress, polling organisations, news outlets, and federal law enforcement agencies.
The case became public on 3 November 2026, the day voters went to the polls in the midterm elections. That timing is part of why the story travelled so widely that day. It does not, by itself, prove anything about the letters, and this file does not treat it as evidence. It is recorded here because it explains why charges filed on 1 November were first widely reported on 3 November, when the first court appearance also fell.
The 2024 mailings, as described in the FBI affidavit reported by multiple outlets, carried a three-page letter titled "DECLARATION OF WAR". The letter described perceived problems with the 2020 election, claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, and voiced concern that some of the same issues would recur in the then-upcoming 2024 election. That description comes from FBI Special Agent David Cole's affidavit, as quoted in reporting, and this file reports it as the affidavit's account of the letter's contents, not as a finding about any election. The claim that Trump won the 2020 election is a false claim: the 2020 election was won by Joe Biden, and that result was certified. The file states that plainly because the letter's claim is part of the record, and a reader should not have to guess whether the file endorses it. It does not.
The 2024 letters also used a return address that investigators describe as fictional: "U.S.T.E.A., United States Traitor Elimination Army, Takoma Park, MD". The organisation named in that return address is not presented in any source relied on here as a real, identified organisation, and this file does not treat it as one. It is recorded because it is one of the links investigators say connects the mailings to each other: the same invented sender name, the same kind of powder, and the same kind of warning, appearing in mail sent to different states.
The warning itself, in the FBI's account, was consistent across the two rounds, with the wording changing slightly. In 2024, the common message spoke of recipients being "ARRESTED AND TRIED FOR TREASON". In 2026, the version reported from the affidavit reads "YOU WILL BE ARRESTED FOR TREASON!! OR WORSE!!". A further message, written in ink visible only under ultraviolet light, is reported in both rounds: "Stay on the right side of history! Your life may depend on it". One envelope message reported from the 2026 mailings reads "Protect Trump! Protect the election! Protest legal votes". These are short phrases quoted from the affidavit as reported, and they are quoted here only to show what kind of message recipients are alleged to have received. The file does not reproduce the letters in full, and no source relied on here publishes them in full.
The effect of a letter like this does not depend on what the powder turns out to be. As reported by The Oklahoman, an FBI agent wrote that it is reasonable that a person receiving a letter containing white powder would fear exposure to the bacteria that causes anthrax. A recipient opening an envelope does not know the powder is harmless, and offices that received the letters responded as hazardous-material incidents. Reporting of the 2026 mailings records evacuations of election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma, and states from Idaho to Florida saying they either received letters or had letters intercepted by the Postal Service.
The 2026 mailings are the reason this case is a live file in November 2026 rather than a closed 2024 incident. According to the FBI affidavit, the most recent mailing took place in October 2026, and investigators believe that more than 700 mailings that autumn appeared to be associated with the same sender, this time with a different return address from the 2024 mailings. The recipients in 2026, as in 2024, included election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news media, and federal law enforcement. The Oklahoma State Election Board confirmed publicly on 3 November 2026 that it had been one of the election offices that received a suspicious white-powder letter, and thanked the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service, the Oklahoma City Police Department, and the United States Capitol Police for the investigation and the arrest.
Two dated episodes in October 2026 are singled out in reporting of the affidavit, and they show how the investigation is alleged to have narrowed. On 13 October 2026, the Oklahoma State Election Board notified the FBI that it had received another letter containing a white powder and a message with ultraviolet-reactive ink on the back of the envelope. On 21 October 2026, a mailing addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel was intercepted at a postal facility in Maryland; according to the affidavit as reported, that letter carried fingerprints investigators attributed to Martin. The FBI also says it gathered video footage of Martin visiting United States Postal Service locations in Oklahoma City, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas, to send the mailings, and that Martin's car was recorded stopping at mailboxes at Postal Service sites in those cities in October. Purchase records are also cited in the affidavit as reported: records said to show purchases of common household goods, such as turmeric and vinegar, used to create ink that could be read with ultraviolet light.
A further thread reported from the affidavit concerns an email list. The FBI says it believes Martin, posing under the name George Livingston, posted a message to a Democratic Socialists of America email list in October 2026, warning that members were traitors and eligible for arrest for treason if they voted in the 3 November election, and that the organisation assisted the investigation. This file reports that thread exactly as the FBI's belief, as reported, because the attribution of the posting to Martin is an allegation, not a proven identification.
Taken together, the affidavit's account is a chain of small links rather than a single decisive piece of evidence: a repeated return-address device, repeated wording, handwriting said to be consistent with a single writer, video of postal visits in three cities, purchase records for ultraviolet-ink materials, and fingerprints on one intercepted letter. Each link is reported here as an affidavit allegation, because an affidavit is a sworn statement in support of charges, not a trial verdict, and none of it has yet been tested in court.
Robin Patrick Martin, 67, of Oklahoma City, was charged on 1 November 2026 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma with two counts: conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes, and mailing threatening communications. He was arrested on Monday 2 November 2026, according to the Associated Press and other reporting of the arrest. The case was made public on Tuesday 3 November 2026, when the complaint was unsealed and Martin appeared for the first time in federal court in Oklahoma City. At that appearance, prosecutors asked that he remain in custody while awaiting trial, and he was returned to jail to await a detention hearing set for 9 November 2026. The Federal Public Defender's office, which represents Martin, said it would not comment on the allegations, and no attorney of record was listed in court filings reviewed by USA TODAY at the time of its report. No plea outcome is reported in any source relied on here, and this file records none.
Prosecutors have described the case in strong terms. Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg called the mailings a "calculated attempt to terrorize public servants" who did not know whether the powder could sicken them. That is a prosecutor's characterisation, reported here as such — not a court finding, and not adopted by this file as its own description of Martin's intent, which no court has yet determined.
One clarification matters, because a similar headline appeared in the same period and the two cases are easy to merge. In October 2026, a separate case was reported in which a 37-year-old Illinois man was charged with sending threatening letters to members of Congress containing a white powder. That is a different case, involving a different person, and no source relied on here connects it to Martin's case. It is mentioned here only so that no reader merges the two.
This file is published on 4 November 2026, the day after the charges were unsealed and Martin's first court appearance, while the record is still short, and that timing is deliberate. A case file published now fixes the verified record — the September 2024 reports, the October 2026 mailings, the 1 November charges, the 2 November arrest, and the 3 November unsealing and court appearance — before unofficial detail hardens into accepted fact. In a case where the central questions are still open — whether the affidavit's chain of links will survive testing in court, what the full testing of the remaining powder will show, and what will happen at the 9 November detention hearing — the first verified account of the charges is exactly the moment when speculation is most likely to fill the gaps.
The test for publishing a live file of this kind is not whether the story is complete. It is whether the verified facts are enough to be useful, and whether the file can be written without guessing at the rest. Here, they are: dated reports in two election cycles, a dated set of charges, a dated arrest, a dated first court appearance, and a pending detention hearing. Left out are any finding about Martin's intent beyond what prosecutors allege, any claim that every letter has been tested, any identification of an individual letter's sender beyond what the affidavit alleges, and any hearing outcome stated in advance.
Caption: Illustration of an empty federal courthouse exterior at dawn — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any Oklahoma City courthouse and not evidence.
What would change this file: if the 9 November detention hearing orders continued detention or release, this file will record the decision, dated and sourced. If a plea is entered, if any count is dismissed, or if a trial produces a verdict, the stamp will change to reflect it, with any appeal honestly noted. If completed powder testing changes the picture for any letter, that result will be added, dated and sourced. If prosecutors or the court release further information about the letters or the investigation, that detail will be added as an official update, not as speculation. Until one of those things happens, the stamp stays CHARGED, Martin is presumed innocent, and this file will not be quietly rewritten.
No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.
Information — if you receive suspicious mail: Do not open it further, do not shake or empty it, and contact your local law enforcement agency. Give only what you personally received or saw. If you believe someone is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
Caption: Illustration of an empty post office lobby at dusk — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any post office and not evidence.
Reader question: When a charge rests on an affidavit that has not yet been tested in court, what should a careful public record do with the gap between what investigators allege and what a court has found — and what does a reader lose when a report closes that gap without saying it has done so?
Previous file: DHF-036 — Constance Hages: Death at the Fairfield Spirit Halloween — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/constance-hages-fairfield-spirit-halloween.html
Next file: DHF-038 — Amber O'Brien: Murder Verdict in Blackley
This file is based on public reporting and official statements available as of 3 November 2026. Read how every file is built on the About page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/about.html), or request a file via the Contact page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/contact.html).
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