United States federal authorities on Friday arrested a man in connection with the series of “suspicious packages” sent to Democrats hours after explosive devices addressed to two other senior officers were discovered, reported The New York Times.
The suspect has been identified as Florida resident Cesar Sayoc, 56, said an unidentified law enforcement official. Sayoc reportedly has a criminal history and links to the New York area. The suspect is currently being questioned by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, reported the Miami Herald.
The Department of Justice confirmed the arrest.
Federal authorities on Friday found two more devices, one of which was addressed to Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, and the other to former director of National Intelligence James R Clapper Jr.
Unidentified police official in New York City said that the package addressed to Clapper was intended to be delivered to the CNN office, where he works as an analyst. The New York Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said a postal worker intercepted the package at a mail facility in Manhattan after realising that it appeared similar to other suspicious packages discovered earlier. It was later secured by the police department’s bomb squad.
The package addressed to Booker was found in Florida.
Clapper, a vocal critic of the Donald Trump administration, told CNN that the bomb wouldn’t deter him from speaking out. “I do want to just echo one thing that John Brennan [former director of the Central Intelligence Agency] said and that this is not going to silence the administration’s critics,” Clapper said.
Former Vice President Joseph Biden on Thursday was the recipient of one of the packages similar to eight parcels reportedly containing explosive devices sent a day earlier to CNN and to senior Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
So far, the possible explosive devices have been sent to people perceived as critics of Trump. Besides Obama and Clinton, the list of recipients includes John Brennan (care of CNN), former Attorney General Eric Holder, California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters and liberal philanthropist and financier George Soros.
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