US mail-bombs: Another suspicious package addressed to billionaire donor Tom Steyer recovered, FBI says
This is the second suspicious package sent to the billionaire who is calling for Donald Trump's impeachment
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Your support makes all the difference.The billionaire Democratic philanthropist, who launched a massive campaign calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment, has already been the target of at least one other suspicious package allegedly sent by Cesar Sayoc, an avid supporter of the president charged with mailing the string of devices to former first families, lawmakers and CNN.
In a tweet addressing the first suspicious package sent to him, Mr Steyer once again called for the president’s impeachment, citing his tenure in the Oval Office as a cause for the “culture of lawlessness in our country.”
“We're thankful that everyone we work with is safe. We are seeing a systematic attack on our democracy that extends much further than just one isolated terrorist in Florida,” he wrote. “That's why we are running an impeachment petition to end the culture of lawlessness in our country.”
The most recent package was "similar in appearance to the others," the FBI said in a statement Friday.
"The FBI has confirmed a package was recovered last night in California, similar in appareance to the others, addressed to Tom Steyer," the federal agency tweeted Friday afternoon.
It was not immediately clear whether the package also contained the same explosive devices or materials included in the packages sent to the Obamas, the Clintons, Maxine Waters, Joe Biden, Deborah Wasserman Schultz and others.
Investigators scouring Mr Sayoc’s social media accounts had found the same spelling mistakes on his online posts — “Hilary” Clinton, Deborah Wasserman “Shultz” — as on the mailings he was charged with sending.
Prosecutors have charged Sayoc with five federal crimes and said the president’s fervent supporter unwittingly left behind a wealth of clues about the mailed pipe-bombs.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has called Mr Steyer a “crazed and stumbling lunatic” in the days after he received the first suspicious package, writing in a tweet that the billionaire would “be running out of money pretty soon” and “if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!”
Mr Steyer then shot back on Twitter, calling it “unthinkable” that the president “would resort to name-calling instead of repairing the damage to the fabric of our country.”
Authorities said pipe bombs addressed to Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former CIA director John Brennan and former Attorney General Eric Holder have also been intercepted in recent days.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press the pipe bombs that were sent to several prominent Democrats and CNN were packed with powder and shards of glass.
The official said the devices were made from PVC pipe that was about six inches long and covered with black tape.
Each device contained a small battery, similar to a watch battery. The official didn’t say whether the powder was explosive, however. Other analysts and bomb experts have said the devices were “rudimentary,” albeit functional.
The FBI has said the packages containing the explosives were sent to the Obamas and the Clintons, as well as former Attorney General Eric Holder, California Democrat Maxine Waters, actor Robert DeNiro, Ms Wasserman Schultz, billionaire George Soros and CNN.
Additional reporting by AP.
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