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Fact check

Is it true: The 2001 Anthrax Letters?

Partially True70% confidence

Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.

The attacks happened and are confirmed. The FBI's conclusion that Bruce Ivins was the sole perpetrator relied on microbial forensics that a 2011 National Academy of Sciences panel found "not as definitive as portrayed." Ivins died before trial; RMR-1029 anthrax was distributed to multiple labs.

The claim

In September–November 2001, letters laced with weapons-grade anthrax spores were mailed to news outlets and US senators, killing five people and infecting seventeen others. The FBI's Amerithrax invest

Key evidence

Five confirmed deaths, seventeen infections

National Academy of Sciences found FBI's case "not as definitive as portrayed"

Read the full evidence file

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