Pipe bomb suspect sent threatening words to O’Rourke
The Florida man accused of sending pipe bombs to former President Barack Obama and at least 13 others also threatened Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke earlier this year, according to O’Rourke’s campaign.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, sent threatening messages to O’Rourke via Facebook in April, O’Rourke’s campaign spokesman Chris Evans said.
Evans said he reported the messages to the Capitol Hill police immediately and turned them over to the FBI in July.
The messages, first reported Wednesday by the Dallas Morning News, included pictures of O’Rourke’s wife and children, and a warning that Sayoc would see him soon.
A spokeswoman with the local FBI field office referred all questions related to Sayoc to the national office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
O’Rourke, an El Paso congressman, did not receive pipe bombs like the other people Sayoc is accused of targeting.
Sayoc sent explosive devices containing "shards of glass that could only have been intended to maximize harm to the defendant's victims," federal prosecutors say.
Sayoc sent pipe bombs meant for Obama, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former Vice President Joe Biden, among others, prosecutors say.
A vocal Donald Trump supporter, Sayoc kept a list of more than 100 potential targets, according to federal authorities.
It is unclear whether O’Rourke was on it.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Sayoc had been planning his campaign for at least three months, and his laptop and cellphone are providing investigators with fresh evidence, according to new court papers.
Calling the bomb spree “a domestic terrorist attack,” prosecutors gave a glimpse into its origins, describing in the court papers how Sayoc’s laptop had been used, as early as July, to draft a list of targets and scour the internet for information on them, the Times reported.
In Austin on Wednesday, O’Rourke said little when asked about the messages he received.
“We just got to continue to do our best to be good to one another,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke, 46, is a three term congressman challenging U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, for re-election.