Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that another ricin attack had been has targeted a US government facility.
'We've had another incident today, I'm told, at Bolling Air Force Base,' Reid told reporters during a media availability at the Capitol.
Ricin is a powerful organic toxin. Exposure to an amount equivalent to a few grains of sand can cause death.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that a ricin-poisoning atack targeted Bolling Air Force Base, but that base was combined with another in 2010 and its current spokesman said he knew nothing about any toxic letters
The facility that was known as Bolling Air Force Base is now called the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. It is a naval facility created by the military's Base Realignment and Closure Commission as part of a series of recommendations in 2005.
Joseph Cirone, a public information officer at that installation told MailOnline that the report is likely untrue.
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'I don't know where he got that from,' the naval spokesman said, 'because I don't have that information. We're sitting here nice and quiet.'
'We have not been notified' of anything related to a ricin attack, he added.
Federal agents wearing hazardous material suits inspected the trash outside the Mississippi home of Paul Kevin Curtis, who was suspected of sending ricin-poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, and a state judge. He was released Tuesday without facing charges
It's possible that Sen. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, was referring to information about a different air force base, but he specifically named the facility in the Anacostia region of Washington, DC.
The Daily Caller reported that a base spokesman said the facility was dealing with 'a hazardous material incident' which 'could be anything from an oil spill [to] a gasoline spill.'
The Senate leadership office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Reid told reporters at the Capitol that 'when I left the room here, I had a [message which] said there’s been an alleged ricin incident at Bolling Air Force Base.'
'That’s all I know. I just read it,' he added.
A Mississippi man was briefly charged with sending ricin-poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, a state judge and Mississippi Sen. Roger last week, but authorities released him Tuesday.
Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator who once performed at a party Wicker hosted, left custody shortly after the cancellation of a detention hearing in Oxford, Mississippi.
The reason for his release wasn't immediately clear, but his attorney confirmed that 'he is with his family.'
Federal law enforcement has not said if any other suspects have been identified. The FBI in Washington, D.C. had no comment.
Reid's disclosure came in response to a reporter's question about Curtis's release.
Paul Kevin Curtis, released from custody on Tuesday, is an Elvis Presley impersonator who once performed at a party given by Sen. Roger Wicker. He was briefly accused of trying to poison Wicker with a ricin-tainted letter
J. Everett Dutschke (foreground), shown on his Facebook page, has been accused of sending the ricin letters, by a politician whose mother, a judge, received one of the poisoned envelopes. He has not been charged
The latest suspect named, J. Everett Dutschke, is reportedly an aspiring politician in Mississippi whom investigators believe may have framed Curtis.
Dutschke ran against state Rep. Steve Holland for his legislative seat in 2007. Holland's mother, Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland, was targeted by one of the letters.Rep. Holland told the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi that Dutschke, hates his family 'with a passion.'