Explosive Rhetoric Unchanged By Attack
Associates track his far-right awakening to 2016 campaign
Pipe bombs sent to Democrats and Trump critics have hardly made a ripple on the campaign trail, with attack ads still on the air and attack lines still in stump speeches.
BOCA RATON, Fla. — The first thing that stood out about Cesar Sayoc was his vehicle.
As far back as 2002, lawyer Ronald Lowy recalled, the windows of Sayoc’s white Dodge Ram van were covered in stickers of Native American regalia. Though Sayoc was Filipino and Italian, he claimed to be a proud member of the Seminole tribe, Lowy said.
The lie was one of many Sayoc would spread about himself over the years. He falsely claimed to have worked as a Chippendales dancer, and he was once charged with fraud for modifying his driver’s license to make it appear he was younger, said Lowy, who represented him in the case. He worked as a DJ or bouncer at strip clubs, dabbled in bodybuilding, and spent much of the past decade living out of his van, Lowy said.
“He made up stories in order to try to impress people,” Lowy said. “He felt like he didn’t have a background that he respected or liked.”
Then Donald Trump burst onto the political scene.
Sayoc, a 56-year-old Florida man who friends and other associates say had never shown any interest in politics, suddenly began sharing images of himself on Facebook at Trump campaign events.
He signed up for Twitter, where he trafficked in conspiracy theories and conservative memes. He registered as a Republican to vote in Florida — Lowy said he believes it was for the first time in Sayoc’s life — in 2016. He traded out his Native American decals for ones that supported Trump.
On Friday, federal authorities arrested Sayoc and charged him with sending more than a dozen potential bombs to various Democratic and media figures who have been critical of Trump. Though none of the devices exploded, the incidents inflamed the partisan tension gripping the country ahead of midterm elections.
Sayoc is expected to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday.
Federal officials declined to say what they believe motivated Sayoc, though Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the incident one of “political violence” and said Sayoc “appears to be a partisan.”
Sayoc declined to speak when first approached by investigators and quickly asked for a lawyer, a law enforcement official said.
Long before Sayoc was political, he was troubled.
He was charged with several crimes throughout the years, including theft, battery, fraud and steroid possession, according to court records and interviews with his previous lawyers. Lowy said that when he was asked to represent Sayoc in 2002, it was because Sayoc — then running a laundromat — had failed to pay his electric bill and threatened to bomb Florida Power & Light. A police report alleges Sayoc said the incident would be “worse than Sept. 11 (2001).”
Lowy said his initial thought of the allegation was: “What type of crazy terrorist is this?”
“And then this man comes into my office carrying a scrapbook of pictures of people he had pictures with, driving a vehicle like no one’s vehicle looks, and I realized I had an oddball here,” Lowy said. “In 2002, he said stupid things, but he wasn’t yet a bomber. Is it a sign that he used the words? Maybe it’s a sign of what he could become.”
Theresa Sharp-Russell, Sayoc’s aunt, told The Washington Post on Saturday that she knew her nephew struggled with mental health issues but was not sure if he had ever gotten a diagnosis. SharpRussell, a real estate broker, said she last talked with Sayoc 12 years ago, when she sold him a house in Fort Lauderdale.
At the time, she said, he seemed pulled together. He covered his mortgage for two years. Then the payments stopped, and the bank seized the property.
It is unclear precisely when Sayoc’s interest in politics began, though it appeared to intensify alongside Trump’s presidential campaign.
On June 18, 2015, his Facebook account expressed early enthusiasm for Trump, who announced his candidacy for president two days earlier. Sayoc created one Twitter account on May 20, 2016, and he soon began sharing positive sen- timents about Trump and attacks on Trump’s opponents.
The posts are a mixture of wild conspiracy theories and hints of violence. He tweeted dozens of times about former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, liberal billionaire George Soros and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
All of them were recipients of potential explosives.
“This is someone who didn’t fit into society,” Lowy said. “This is someone that needed to be reached out to. He got lost, and sadly, he got found by the wrong group.”