Cesar Sayoc arrest: Florida suspect faces 48 years in prison over pipe bombs targeting Trump critics
A dozen explosive devices and suspicious packages intercepted by authorities in last few days
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Your support makes all the difference.On Friday, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that Cesar Sayoc Jr, the suspect connected to the mailing of more than a dozen parcel bombs and suspicious packages to senior Democrats and prominent critics of Donald Trump, had been charged with five federal crimes.
The federal felony charges include interstate transportation of explosives, illegal mailing of explosives and threats against a former president among others. In a press conference, Mr Sessions said Mr Sayoc faced up to 58 years in prison if found guilty.
“We will not tolerate such lawlessness, especially political violence,” he said.
Several moments later, however, the Justice Department said Mr Sessions had inaccurate information about the alleged bomber’s prison time. Mr Sayoc faces 48 years in prison, not 58.
When asked if there are other suspects, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the investigation is active and ongoing. Officials believe there may be other explosive devices in the mail system.
The federal authorities were able to find Mr Sayoc after finding a fingerprint on one of the envelopes sent to California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, which has been confirmed to belong to him, Wray said. Investigators also believe there is DNA on other packages Mr Sayoc sent.
The authorities also seized Mr Sayoc’s white van. The vehicle was covered in stickers featuring Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, anti-gay symbols, Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia, and a lynching of a black person. One of the stickers read “CNN sucks,” echoing a chant often said in Mr Trump’s rallies.
The prosecutor for Mr Sayoc's case is US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman.
“This is an ongoing and active investigation. We will not rest until these crimes are fully investigated,” Mr Berman said.
Mr Sessions said the mail bomb suspect appears to be partisan, but said he does not know why Democratic political figures were targeted.
Two weeks prior to sending pipe bombs, Mr Sayoc harassed and threatened Democratic strategist Rochelle Ritchie. Ms Ritchie reported him to Twitter. The social media site responded by saying that Mr Sayoc did not commit any violations.
Mr Sayoc’s Facebook page, listed under the name Cesar Altieri Randazzo, is filled with right-wing propaganda. He appeared to have shared posts and articles from right-wing pages, Breitbart and Fox News. One of the posts Mr Sayoc shares is from a Facebook page called “Handcuffs for Hillary.”
A Facebook spokesperson said it removed multiple posts from Mr Sayoc’s account for violating its community standards. Some of the removals were the result of Facebook users reporting Mr Sayoc’s posts for violations. Others were identified by Facebook through its detection systems.
The violations, however, were not severe enough for the company to remove the account.
If you want to see how the day progressed, follow the live blog below
Mr Wray again calls it an active and ongoing investigation when asked if they believe whether there may be other suspects.
Mr Wray says that President Donald Trump should be proud of the "extraordinary" work done by law enforcement in this case.
"Today's arrest means the people across our nation are safe. But there might be more packages out there and everyone still needs to take caution," New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill
Suspect Cesar Sayoc “appears to be a partisan”, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I don’t know,” Mr Sessions said when asked why Democratic political figures had been targeted
.
However, officials did not want to talk about the possible motives behind the crime.
Cesar Sayoc apparently made posts on social media suggesting an affiliation with Florida’s Seminole tribe, but the tribe has disavowed him. They said in a statement:
“We can find no evidence that Cesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri Sayoc, Ceasar Altieri Randazzo (Facebook) or Julus Cesar Milan (Twitter) is or was a member or employee of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, or is or was an employee of Seminole Gaming or Hard Rock International. At this time, we cannot verify if he is or was an employee of a vendor company.”
Facebook had previously removed multiple posts from Cesar Sayoc’s account for violating its community standards, a Facebook spokesperson has said.
The spokesperson said that some of the removals were the result of Facebook users reporting Sayoc’s posts for violations. Other posts were identified by Facebook through its detection systems.
However the violations were not severe enough for the company to remove the account.
More detail here on how the packages looked:
Certain of the mailings included photographs of the target-recipients marked with a red “X.”
Approximately six self-adhesive American flag postage stamps are located on the top right corner of each of the Packages, the return address for each of the Packages is the same, and the sender and target-recipient address labels on each of the Packages are substantially similar in terms of color, size, and font.
The Justice Department is now saying Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other officials had wrong information at this afternoon's press conference about how much time Cesar Sayoc faces in prison. The correct information is up to 48 years in prison, not 58 years.
According to Florida court and property records, Treasure Secretary Steven Mnuchin had a part in foreclosing Cesar Sayoc's home.
IndyMac, a California-based bank, foreclosed Mr Sayoc's home in 2009. IndyMac failed during the recession, but was later renamed to OneWest Bank after it was bought by a group of investors that included Mr Mnuchin.
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