COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal investigation is underway after all 25 Republican members of the Ohio Senate were mailed envelopes containing feces Thursday.
Senate spokesperson John Fortney confirmed the letters were sent almost a week ago from a Cleveland post office.
According to Fortney, the envelopes were intercepted by Statehouse, Cleveland and Akron post offices before reaching any of the senators.
The incident is being investigated as a federal crime by the U.S. Postal Inspector. Fortney said the Ohio State Highway Patrol has also been notified.
In an interview with 10TV, Sen. Jay Hottinger said he's been in the legislature for 28 and he's seen a lot but this is a first.
"It's difficult to quantify how immature, obviously gross, ridiculous, you know, a stunt like this is. Whatever message that they are intending to try to deliver loses all effect when you resort to ridiculous stunts like this," he said.
Hottinger said it's obviously political in nature because they were only sent to Republicans.
"I have guesses given the very volatile, political world and climate that we're in right now but that would just be purely speculation," he said.
10TV has reached out to the U.S. Postal Inspector and the Ohio State Highway Patrol for comment on the investigation.
We have also reached out to spokespeople with the Ohio House to see if similar letters were sent to any representatives.