The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BOMB SUSPECT ARRESTED
Florida man, 56, outspoken Trump supporter, charged with five crimes. President denounces attacks, praises law enforcement for quick arrest.
A Florida man who is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump was charged Friday with sending explosive packages to at least a dozen of the president’s critics, apparently bringing to a close a bombing spree that has gripped the country just ahead of the midterm elections.
Federal law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Fla., just north of Miami.
Sayoc was taken into custody Friday morning even as the crude pipe bombs continued to appear across the country. One package was addressed to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; another was sent to James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence; and a third was intercepted before it reached Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
A fourth bomb, found in a mail facility in California, was addressed to Tom Steyer, a prominent Democratic donor, Steyer said in a statement.
At a news conference in Washington on Friday afternoon, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Sayoc had been charged with five federal crimes, including the interstate transportation of an explosive, the illegal mailing of explosives and making a threat against a former president and others.
According to a criminal complaint released as Sessions spoke, the packages sent by Sayoc included photographs of his intended targets, each one marked with a red X.
When asked why Sayoc had sent the bombs to Democrats, Sessions said he was not sure, but added that the suspect “appears to be a partisan.” On his Facebook account, Sayoc posted photos of a Trump rally he attended
during the 2016 presidential campaign. He was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.
Federal officials said they had tracked down Sayoc, who has a lengthy arrest history, after his fingerprint was found on a package sent to Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. 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.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was still trying to determine if Sayoc’s bombs were “functional” but also noted that they contained “energetic material” that could be dangerous. Wray said the investigation was “active and ongoing” and cautioned that there could be more bombs still undiscovered.
The criminal complaint said Sayoc misspelled the names of many of his targets, rendering President Barack Obama as “Barrack Obama” and Hillary Clinton as “Hilary Clinton.” Some of those same spelling errors appeared in Twitter messages that the complaint attributed to Sayoc.
Sayoc is a registered Republican whose arrest record in F lorida 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-foot11 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 Sayoc’s occupation some years ago as “manager.”
According to a 2012 bankr uptcy peti t ion filed in Miami, Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”
Sayoc was arrested around 11 a.m. Friday outside an AutoZone car parts 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 Sayoc’s white van, where he was apparently living.
Some residents of Aven- tura 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 shop- ping center. Photos of the van showed that one of the stickers depicted a heroic Trump standing in front of flames and the American flag. Another was of Clin- ton’s face in the cross-hairs of a rifle scope. A third said: “CNN Sucks.”
“It struck me because of the crazy conspiratorial stick- ers covering the windows,” said David Cypkin, a documentary film producer. “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 earlier on Friday, Trump praised law enforce- ment 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.”
For months now, Trump has been attacking the FBI, ridiculing its officials and damaging morale at the bureau.
The swift arrest Friday was a public win for Wray, the FBI director, and a reminder of his agency’s prowess and importance.
Commissioner James O’Neill of the New York Police Department also praised the FBI, sending a message that the two agencies, along with some half-dozen others that took part in the investiga- tion, were in lockstep.
The criminal complaint against Sayoc was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he will be pros- ecuted. Five of the bombs sent this week fall under the jurisdiction of federal pros- ecutors in Manhattan.
Sayoc is expected to appear before a judge in Florida on Monday.
A lawyer from the Federal Defenders office in Manhattan, Sarah Baumgartel, is expected to represent him. She could not immediately be reached for comment.
One law enforcement offi- cial said the investigation came together less than 24 hours before the announce- ment, with a preliminary DNA match first and the fingerprint match coming some- time Friday morning.
Later on Friday, federal authorities executed a search warrant at a residence associated with Sayoc, but he had been living in his van. Agents conducted a preliminary sweep of the vehicle before towing it back to the FBI office, where they were expected to search it later Friday.
The official said that during an interview with agents Sayoc denied playing any role in the bombing campaign.
“He denied all knowledge of making the bombs,” the official said. “Any time they brought up the devices, he wouldn’t say anything about them.”
Sayoc was first interviewed under a national security exception that allows defendants to be questioned without being advised of their rights to a lawyer.
After he was given his Miranda warnings and told he could have a lawyer, “he invoked his right to counsel pretty quickly,” the official said. He declined to answer further questions.
For the third day in a row, reports about bombs came rolling in from across the country.
The package addressed to Clapper was meant to be delivered to the New York offices of CNN, where he works as an analyst, but was intercepted at a mail facility in midtown Manhattan, police officials in New York City said. The package addressed to Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, was found in Florida.
The device sent to Harris’ district office in Sacramento, Calif., was discovered at a mail facility there, she said in a statement Friday. Steyer said that the device addressed to him had been intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, Calif.
Speaking on CNN on Friday, Clapper said he was not surprised that a device had been sent to him. He has been a frequent critic of Trump, a similarity shared with everyone whose names have appeared on the packages discovered so far.
“This is definitely domestic terrorism,” Clapper said. “Anyone who has in any way been a critic, publicly been a critic of President Trump, needs to be on an extra alert.”
All together, 14 explosive devices have been found since Monday, sent through the mail to a host of Democrats and other prominent figures. Other packages have been addressed to Obama; former Vice President Joe Biden; Clinton; Waters; former Attorney General Eric Holder; John Brennan, a former CIA director; actor Robert De Niro; and George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor.
All of the packages had return address labels bearing the misspelled name of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. They each were affixed with six firstclass stamps and the explosive devices were contained in plain manila envelopes.
While investigators initially thought that some of the devices were hand delivered, federal officials now believe that all were sent through the mail.