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NEW YORK: A Donald Trump fan from Florida was arrested and charged on Friday (October 26th) for sending 13 bombs to US President's opponents in a frenzied week-long frenzy that ignited the country before decisive elections.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, a registered Republican-born criminal, born in New York and living in a van covered with pro-Trump and anti-Liberal stickers, was arrested in front of a Florida shopping mall.
The van was impounded and Sayoc was charged with five federal crimes, including the sending of explosives and threats against former presidents, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
If he is tried and convicted, he faces up to 48 years in prison in what politicians on both sides of the chain have condemned as domestic terrorism.
READ: Cesar Sayoc, the American bombing suspect, an ardent supporter of Trump
READ: Fingerprints and DNA led to the arrest of a Florida man in bombs sent to Trump's critics
"We think we caught the right guy but … there is still a lot of work to be done, which means that there are still many unanswered questions," said FBI Director Christopher Wray. at a press conference.
The 13 bombs were sent by mail, most by a US Postal Service processing center in Florida, and Sayoc was found on the basis of fingerprints and possible DNA evidence, agents said.
READ: Police find packages sent to US senator, former chief of intelligence, while probe rotates in Florida
The Republican President commended the forces of the order for what he called a "fantastic job" that he equated with "finding a needle in a haystack".
"These acts of terrorism are heinous and have no place in our country," he said at an event at the White House. "Americans must unify and we must show the world that we are united in peace, love and harmony."
In South Florida, FBI agents and police invaded the Plantation Mall, where an AFP photographer saw a van covered with a blue tarp loaded into a truck transported by authorities.
TRUMP DENIES BLAME
Sayoc is accused of sending explosives to 11 liberal or liberal critics of the president, including former president Barack Obama and Trump's opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton.
Other targets were former president Joe Biden, Hollywood star Robert De Niro, billionaire donor George Soros, former CIA director John Brennan, former chief intelligence officer James Clapper, former Attorney General Eric Holder, MP Maxine Waters and Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. .
Waters and Biden each received two packages. All targets are hated by Trump supporters for their public opposition to the US President and for being the recipients of his toxic remarks in the past.
The president acknowledged the suspect's political allegiance, but denied any responsibility that his inflammatory rhetoric might have played in the motivation of the madness.
"I heard that it was a person who preferred me to others," he told reporters. "There is no reproach," he insisted, despite being harassed by political opponents for his response to the crisis in which he attacked the politicians. media.
"The media has been incredibly unfair to Republicans, Conservatives and, of course, to me," he said on Friday. "But all that being said, we are winning, so I love it."
Asked about the role that rhetoric could have played, the FBI opposed it.
"It's too early at this point for us to discuss motivation in this particular case," Wray told reporters. "We fear that people will commit acts of violence, regardless of their motives."
Each of the homemade bombs included six inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, a battery, wiring and power equipment, defined by FBI director Christopher Wray as potentially explosive.
The first package was intercepted Monday at Soros' home in Bedford, New York. The newest Friday in California, Florida and New York.
READ: US courier-bomber case calls for better postal filtering
OBAMA MARKED WITH RED X
The Clapper and Brennan packages were for CNN, a television network that is often critical of the administration and has long provoked Trump's anger.
Trump has been criticized for his response to the frenzy, which politicians of all parties have described as national terrorism, extending from New York, Maryland, Florida, Delaware and Los Angeles.
On Friday, shortly before the announcement of the arrest, he complained of slowing shipments of his Republican party before the November 6 elections, which angered his opponents.
The winner of a double Oscar and critically biting Trump, De Niro, urged Friday people to vote midway through a day after finding a device in the offices of his production company at Manhattan.
"I thank God that no one was hurt, and I thank the brave and ingenious security and law enforcement officers for protecting us," he said. "There is something more powerful than bombs, and it's your vote, people have to vote!"
The packages were sent in bubble-paper wrapped kraft paper envelopes, each bearing six postage stamps depicting an American flag.
Each envelope mentioned Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former president of the Democratic National Committee, as the sender, and misinterpreted Florida as "Florids," according to the criminal complaint.
The typed addresses included spelling mistakes in the given names of Clinton, Obama and Waters. The package intended for the former president included a picture of Obama marked with a red X, according to the criminal complaint.
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