HUNT FOR MYSTERY MAIL BOMBER
Total of 10 packages now mailed to anti-Trumpers umpers
Fierce President Trump critics Robert De Niro and Joe Biden on Thursday joined other high-profile Democrats who have now been sent a total of 10 suspicious packages that appear to have contained pipe bombs.
The news came as investigators focused their probe of the package-sending spree on southern Florida, where they reportedly believe at least some of the parcels were mailed from the OpaLocka facility north of Miami.
“We are investigating all of this with great precision. I can say with certainty we will identify and arrest a person or people responsible for these acts,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said at a press conference Thursday. “Make no mistake.” An envelope containing what appeared to be a pipe bomb was sent to De Niro in Manhattan, and two similar parcels were addressed to former Vice President Biden in Delaware.
Democratic megadonor George Soros on Monday was the first to receive one, at his Westchester County estate. Since then, authorities have recovered similar parcels targeting the Clintons, also in Westchester; the Obamas, in Washington, DC; Rep. Maxine Waters, in DC and LA; and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Another was oddly addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan at CNN’s Manhattan office.
The package addressed to De Niro star was sent to his property in Tribeca, where it had been sitting at least since Tuesday, according to sources.
A retired NYPD detective who screens mail for De Niro’s production company was watching TV news early Thursday when he saw a report on the package sent to CNN and realized it looked like one sent to De Niro’s office on Greenwich Street, police said.
The ex-cop called the Bomb Squad directly at about 5 a.m. and the unit went to retrieve the parcel from the building, which also houses De Niro’s Tribeca Grill restaurant and the Tribeca Film Center.
A preliminary investigation indicated the bomb-like device in the package was not functional — like the ones sent to CNN and Soros, sources said.
Those two were both lacking blasting caps or other means of detonating explosive material, a source briefed on the devices previously told The Post.
At a press conference Thursday, officials refused to comment on whether the gadgets were actually capable of exploding, saying only that they were being treated as “live devices.”
“As far as a hoax device, we’re not treating it that way,” O’Neill said.
De Niro is not a political figure like most of the other package recipients — but famously unleashed a torrent of obscenities at the commander in chief during this year’s Tony Awards.
“First, I wanna say, ‘F--k Trump,’ ” the “Raging Bull” star said at Radio City Music Hall in June. “It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump,’ it’s ‘F–k Trump’!”
Trump shot back two days later on Twitter: “Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received to [sic] many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punchdrunk.’ ”
While police were dealing with De Niro’s parcel, two similar packages addressed to Biden were intercepted at Delaware postal facilities.
One was found at about 6 a.m. at the post office in New Castle,
and the second a short time later at the post office in Wilmington some seven miles away, according to local paper The News Journal.
“We gotta turn off this hate machine. We gotta come together,” Biden said while campaigning in Buffalo Thursday with congressional candidate Nathan McMurray. “The American public, all over the nation, people want us to be more civil. People want us to choose hope over hate. They want us to choose . . . for real. I mean, it’s guttural. People understand that words matter. Words matter. And our children are listening.”
At least one of the packages had been mis add res sed.ss ed. As was the case with all the other parcels, the return address was listed falsely as Rep. Debbiebbie Wasserman Schultz’s Floridaa office, which is where the packagekage intended for Holder wound up being rerouted.
Investigators are now focusing their probe on thehe Sunshine State, law-enforcementt sources told The Post Thursday.
At least some of parcels appear to have been sentnt from Florida, according to Thee WallWall Street Journal.
Previous reportsrts said the package sentent to CNN was deliveredvered by courier and the parcel found in Soros’ mailbox waswas hand-delivered. But police now believe they all came through the US Postal Service at some point, sources said.