Investigators dig into suspect’s radical beliefs
Trump weighs in on how immigrant should be punished
Investigators continued Thursday to probe the 29year-old Uzbek immigrant charged with the New York truck attack, poring over his communications to see whether he had any help before the deadly rampage, while President Donald Trump publicly weighed in on the federal prosecution of the suspect.
New York police officials say that the attacker appears to have self-radicalized and that it does not appear anyone else was involved, though they said that continues to be a key question in the international investigation launched after the Halloween attack in lower Manhattan killed eight people and wounded 12 others.
Authorities are trying to determine whether Sayfullo Saipov, who was charged Wednesday with providing support to a terrorist group, only drew inspiration from the Islamic State and its calls for adherents to attack using vehicles, or whether he was enabled in some way, which so far does not seem to be the case, officials said.
A key difference in this case compared with past attacks is that Saipov, who was shot by a police officer after crashing his truck into a school bus, was taken into custody alive.
“When you capture a live terrorist, you have the ability to question that person and you’re able to glean a lot about those things,” John Miller, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism with the New York City Police Department, said Thursday on “CBS This Morning.”
“Were they part of a larger network? Is this something bigger? Were they acting alone?”
Saipov could also offer information to authorities helpful beyond his case, because a suspected terrorist in custody also lets investiga- tors delve more deeply into “the arc of their radicalization,” Miller said.
“What we’re seeing today is, in the United States, a great deal of that is just done online,” he said.
In court documents, authorities depicted Saipov as a man who plotted carefully and was proud of the carnage inflicted upon pedestrians and bicyclists Tuesday afternoon.
Officials said Saipov told them he wanted to kill as many people as he could, picking Halloween because he thought more people would be outside, according to the criminal complaint.
Trump tweeted hours after Saipov was charged that he “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!”
On Thursday, Trump backed away from his suggestion a day earlier that he could send Saipov to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, writing on Twitter that there was “something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed.”
He added, though, that the case “should move fast” and again called for the death penalty, which could create a hurdle for federal prosecutors in the case. One of the charges against Saipov could carry a potential death sentence, although the Justice Department has not said whether it will pursue that. If they do, defense lawyers could argue that Trump’s tweets may prevent a jury from giving Saipov a fair trial.
David Patton, Saipov’s defense attorney, declined to comment on Trump’s tweets.
Trump also pushed again Thursday for canceling the program under which Saipov entered the country in 2010, as well as for changing immigration rules that give priority to family members of those living in the United States.
Speaking in the White House after a meeting with Republican senators, Trump called the “diversity visa” lottery “a disaster for our country.”
“The people put in that lottery are not that country’s finest,” he said, adding that the program created “significant vulnerabilities” for national security.
“We want to select people based on their ability to contribute to our country, not choose people randomly when you have no idea who they are or be based on extended family connections,” Trump said. “You have people bringing in 24, 25, 26 people when they come in.”
Trump’s claims appeared exaggerated.