FBI: Suspicious Material At Congressman's Office Was Tea Bags

LITHONIA, GA -- An unknown red powder in an envelope that caused U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson's Lithonia office to be evacuated on Thursday appears to have come from a tea bag, according to the FBI.

The Democratic congressman's office was evacuated at about 11 a.m. Thursday after an employee opened a package to find it contained a suspicious substance.

On Friday, Stephen Emmett, spokesman for the FBI's Atlanta office, said the package appeared to contain "a tea bag or the contents of a tea bag."

He said the envelope had no return address and did not include any sort of threatening message.

Johnson was in Seattle on Thursday attending a Congressional Black Caucus event. Only the one employee was exposed to the package and, according to police, she showed no ill effects from doing so.

Emmett noted the practice of some Tea Party activists of mailing tea bags to politicians as a form of protest.

"It remains to be seen if this was the case in yesterday's matter, however," Emmett said.

The substance has been sent to Georgia's Department of Public Health labs for further analysis.