Updated 8:15 p.m.
A hazmat team arrived at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this evening after an envelope containing an unidentified white powder was discovered in the mailroom.
The powder has been contained and nobody was exposed, said Ed Sloane, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service for the District of Columbia.
Sloane would not confirm to whom the envelope was addressed. He said it was discovered at around 5:30 p.m.
As late as 7 p.m. there were several hazmat and fire department trucks lined up by the court's back entrance. Workers on the scene declined to comment.
But life inside the courthouse appeared to have gone on as usual. Security guards said the building had not been cleared. A group of law students exiting the building after a moot court competition said they had heard nothing about the unidentified powder.
"It was normal" inside, said Ben Hendricks, a first-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center.
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