Authorities have arrested a Florida man named Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old Trump supporter, in connection with the wave of bombing attempts directed at critics of
Fifty-six-year-old Cesar Sayoc Jr. has been arrested and charged in connection with the rash of bombs sent via the United States Postal Service to a variety of Democratic Party politicians and officials, former government officials, and CNN:
Federal authorities made an arrest on Friday in connection with the nationwide bombing campaign against outspoken critics of President Trump, a significant breakthrough in a case that has gripped the country in the days leading up to the midterm elections.
Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Fla., just north of Miami.
The arrest came even as the crude pipe bombs continued to appear across the country. One, found in Florida, was addressed to Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat; another, discovered in a Manhattan post office, was sent to James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence; and a third was intercepted before it reached Senator Kamala Harris, a California Democrat.
A fourth bomb, found on Friday in a mail facility in California, was addressed to Tom Steyer, a prominent Democratic donor, a person close to him said.
At a news conference in Washington on Friday afternoon, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Mr. Sayoc had been charged with five counts, including illegal mailing of explosives and making threats against former presidents. According to a criminal complaint released as Mr. Sessions spoke, the packages sent by Mr. Sayoc included photographs of his intended targets, each one marked with a red X.
When asked why Mr. Sayoc had sent the bombs to Democrats, Mr. Sessions said he was not sure, adding that the suspect “appears to be a partisan.”
Federal officials said they had tracked down Mr. Sayoc, who has a lengthy arrest history, after finding one of his fingerprints on a package sent to Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. Mr. Sayoc’s identify was confirmed, the officials added, after investigators found a match between DNA samples discovered on two other packages he sent and DNA that was collected during one of his previous arrests.
The F. B. I. director, Christopher A. Wray, said that the bureau was still trying to determine if Mr. Sayoc’s bombs were “functional” but also noted that they contained “energetic material” that could be dangerous. Mr. Wray said that the investigation was “active and ongoing” and cautioned that there could be more bombs still undiscovered.
Mr. Sayoc is a registered Republican whose arrest record in Florida dates back to 1991 and includes felony theft, drug and fraud charges, as well as allegations that he threatened to use a bomb, public records show.
His criminal history from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicates that at the time of his last arrest in 2015, he was 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds. He has brown eyes, black hair and a scar on his left arm, the records said, and was born in New York. The records listed Mr. Sayoc’s occupation some years ago as “manager.”
According to a 2012 bankruptcy petition filed in Miami, Mr. Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”
[Read more on what we know about the suspect, Cesar Sayoc Jr.]
Mr. Sayoc was arrested around 11 a.m. Friday at an AutoZone car repair shop in Plantation, Fla., about 20 miles from Aventura, officials said. Patrol cars shut down the surrounding streets, leaving rows of businesses inaccessible for part of the morning. The authorities also seized and towed away Mr. Sayoc’s white van.
Some residents of Aventura reported seeing a similar white van, the windows of which were plastered with a thick collage of pro-Trump stickers, often parked in the lot of a local strip mall, the Aventura Waterways shopping center. Photos of the van showed that one of the stickers depicted Mr. Trump standing in front of flames and the American flag. Another was of Hillary Clinton’s face in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. A third said: “CNN Sucks.”
“It struck me because of the crazy conspiratorial stickers covering the windows,” said David Cypkin, a documentary film producer and editor with the Rakontur production company. “It was unsettling, and also it seemed to be occupied. Sometimes the door would be ajar or a window would be open, which indicated to me that maybe somebody was living in the van.”
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Mr. Trump praised law enforcement officials for quickly arresting a suspect.
“These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country,” he said.
He added: “We must never allow political violence to take root in America.”
One law enforcement official said that Mr. Sayoc was expected to be questioned under what is known as the national security exception, meaning that he can be interviewed at least initially without the presence of a lawyer.
More from The Washington Post:
A man in Florida with a lengthy criminal record was arrested and charged Friday in connection with the suspected mail bombs sent to high profile figures, authorities said.
The arrest came on the same day law enforcement responded to three more devices — in Florida, New York and California — pushing the total number of packages found by authorities to 13. All of the devices were sent to people who have criticized or clashed with President Trump, and while none have detonated, officials have been on high alert and worried about whether more could be delivered.
The suspect has been identified as 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc. State records show he had a criminal record dating back decades, including a past arrest for making a bomb threat.
Sayoc was charged with transporting explosives across state lines, illegally mailing explosives, threatening former presidents and others, threatening interstate communications and assaulting federal officials, according to charging documents. He faces up to 58 years in prison, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference announcing the charges.
FBI Director Christopher Wray referred to the 13 explosive devices recovered so far as “IEDs,” an acronym for improvised explosive devices. He said investigators were able to trace Sayoc after finding a fingerprint on an envelope containing a bomb sent to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and that DNA found on two of the devices matched a sample previously taken from Sayoc during an earlier arrest.
Inside the packages sent to three of the potential targets — former president Barack Obama, former CIA director John Brennan and Waters — were a picture of each person with red “X” marks on them, according to the criminal complaint, filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Wray declined to say whether the devices could have detonated, saying that investigators are “still trying to determine whether or not they were functional.” But he said they did contain potentially explosive material adding: “These are not hoax devices.”
The complaint also included details suggesting Sayoc’s antipathy toward the people and organizations targeted, including CNN, where one packaged was found and another addressed.
“The windows of Sayoc’s van were covered with images including images critical of CNN,” the complaint said. The complaint also identifies a Twitter account that law enforcement officials believe Sayoc used, and noted that account contained misspellings consistent with misspellings on the packages, and that one post made Wednesday criticized George Soros, the billionaire activist, who two days earlier had received an explosive.
Wray declined to say if Sayoc is cooperating with investigators. When asked why Sayoc allegedly targeted Democrats, Sessions said he “appears to be a partisan” and declined to comment further.
Sayoc’s arrest came just hours after the news broke this morning regarding the packages addressed to Senator Booker and former Director Clapper, which were found at mail processing facilities in Florid and New York respectively, had become public knowledge. It also came at roughly the same time as news broke regarding an additional package addressed to California Senator Kamala Harris was located in Sacramento and a nother potential device addressed to liberal activist Tom Steyer was being investigated in Burlingame, California. The arrest also caps off a week in which packages were found in New York, Washington, D. C., California, and Florida addressed to a long list of Trump critics. It began on Monday with the discovery of a package in the mailbox of George Soros’s Westchester, New York home. On Wednesday, authorities across the country found packages addressed to former President Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, the New York City offices of CNN, and two packages sent to the Washington, D. C, and California district offices of Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
