10-26-18

A Florida man who is an outspoken supporter of President Trump was charged on 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.

Not all republicans are derranged lunatics. 

Are the Fake Pipe Bombs Part of an Election Meddling Scheme?

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Police in Fla. surround van in bomb probe

AP  (26 Oct 2018) Federal officials were seen on television examining a white van, its windows covered with an assortment of stickers, in the city of Plantation and covering the vehicle with a blue tarp. (Oct. 26)

DOJ holds presser on arrest of mail bomb suspect. LIVE

Fox News  The Justice Department holds a briefing after a suspect has been arrested in connection to the package bombs. The person in custody was revealed to be Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old who lived in Aventura, Florida. Sayoc faces five federal charges and up to 48 years in prison.

Suspect in custody over wave of mail bombs targeting Democrats

RT  Federal agents have arrested and detained a suspect in connection with a string of suspicious packages sent to prominent Democratic and left-wing figures over the last week.

Tracked using cell phone & DNA trails…

Just Informed Talk

Peter Barry Chowka -10/25/2018

Hagmann Report

Bomb Suspect Arrested in Florida; Charged With 5 Counts

A Florida man who is an outspoken supporter of President Trump was charged on 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.

Mr. Sayoc was taken into custody on Friday morning even as the crude pipe bombs continued to appear across the country. One was addressed to Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat; another was sent to James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence; and a third was intercepted before it reached Senator Kamala Harris, a California Democrat.

A fourth bomb, found in a mail facility in California, was addressed to Tom Steyer, a prominent Democratic donor, Mr. Steyer said in a statement.

Cesar Sayoc Jr.CreditBroward County Sheriff’s Office

At a news conference in Washington on Friday afternoon, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Mr. Sayoc had been charged in Manhattan with five federal crimes, including the interstate transportation of an explosive, the illegal mailing of explosives and making threats against former presidents.

According to a criminal complaint released as Mr. Sessions spoke, the packages sent by Mr. Sayoc included photographs of his intended targets, each one marked with a red X.

When asked why Mr. Sayoc had sent the bombs to Democrats, Mr. Sessions said he was not sure, adding that the suspect “appears to be a partisan.” On his Facebook account, Mr. 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 Mr. Sayoc, who has a lengthy arrest history, after finding one of his fingerprints on a package sent to Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. Mr. 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.

The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, said the bureau was still trying to determine if Mr. Sayoc’s bombs were “functional” but also noted that they contained “energetic material” that could be dangerous. Mr. Wray said the investigation was “active and ongoing” and cautioned that there could be more bombs still undiscovered.

Criminal Complaint Against Cesar Altieri Sayoc

The criminal complaint against Mr. Sayoc was filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and detailed the five charges against him. (PDF, 11 pages, 0.13 MB)

11 pages, 0.13 MB

The criminal complaint said Mr. 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 Mr. Sayoc.

Mr. Sayoc is a registered Republican whose arrest record in Florida 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-foot-11 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 Mr. Sayoc’s occupation some years ago as “manager.”

According to a 2012 bankruptcy petition filed in Miami, Mr. Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”

[Read more on what we know about the suspect, Cesar Sayoc Jr.]

Mr. Sayoc was arrested around 11 a.m. Friday at an AutoZone car repair 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 Mr. Sayoc’s white van.

Targets of Potential Explosive Devices

At least 12 suspicious packages have been discovered since Monday. Here are where the packages were found and who they were addressed to.

Monday

Wednesday

Hillary Clinton

John O. Brennan

George Soros

Barack Obama

Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters

Eric H. Holder Jr.

Thursday

Friday

Robert De Niro

James R. Clapper Jr.

Kamala Harris

Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Tom Steyer

Cory Booker

A device intended for Mr. Holder was misaddressed and sent to Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office because her name was on the return address. Two packages each were addressed to Mr. Biden and Ms. Waters. | By Jugal K. Patel and Joe Ward

Some residents of Aventura 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 shopping center. Photos of the van showed that one of the stickers depicted a heroic Mr. Trump standing in front of flames and the American flag. Another was of Mrs. Clinton’s face in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. A third said: “CNN Sucks.”

“It struck me because of the crazy conspiratorial stickers 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, Mr. Trump praised law enforcement 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, Mr. Trump has been attacking the F.B.I., ridiculing its officials and damaging morale at the bureau. The swift arrest on Friday was a public win for Mr. Wray and a reminder of his agency’s prowess and importance.

Law enforcement covering a van in Plantation, Fla., on Friday.CreditWPLG-TV, via Associated Press

The criminal complaint against Mr. Sayoc was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where he will be prosecuted. Five of the bombs sent this week fall under the jurisdiction of federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

A lawyer from the Federal Defenders office in Manhattan, Sarah Baumgartel, was expected to represent Mr. Sayoc. She could not immediately be reached for comment.

One law enforcement official said Mr. Sayoc was expected to be questioned under what is known as the national security exception, meaning that he can be interviewed at least initially without the presence of a lawyer.

For the third day in a row, reports about bombs came rolling in from across the country.

The package addressed to Mr. 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 Mr. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, was found in Florida.

The device sent to Ms. Harris’s district office in Sacramento, Calif. was discovered at a mail facility there, she said in a statement on Friday. Mr. Steyer said that the device addressed to him had been intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, Calif.

Federal law enforcement authorities announced charges against Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, who was arrested in connection with the mailing of pipe bombs to outspoken critics of President Trump.Published OnOct. 26, 2018CreditCreditImage by Erin Schaff for The New York Times

Speaking on CNN on Friday, Mr. Clapper said he was not surprised that a device had been sent to him. He has been a frequent critic of President Trump, a similarity shared with everyone whose names have appeared on the packages discovered so far.

[A look at the contentious words between the president and some of his most outspoken critics.]

“This is definitely domestic terrorism,” Mr. 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 who have been among Mr. Trump’s most vocal detractors. Other packages — virtually identical in plain manila envelopes — have been addressed to former President Obama; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; former Secretary of State Clinton; Ms. Waters; former Attorney General Eric Holder; John O. Brennan, a former C.I.A. director, the actor Robert De Niro; and George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor.

[Read our columnist on how the ‘False Flag’ theory on pipe bombs zooms from the right-wing fringe to the mainstream.]

All of the packages had return address labels bearing the misspelled name of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat whose district is in southern Florida. They each were affixed with six first-class 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. Using information collected by the United States Postal Service, investigators had focused their attention on certain Florida postal centers, including one in Opa-locka near Miami.

New York Times

#fakebomb #terror #florida #democrat #politics

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