Authorities formally charged Cesar Altieri Sayoc, aka Cesar Randazzo, aka Cesar Altieri, and aka Cesar Altieri Randazzo, 56, in a 30-count Indictment for mailing bombs to critics of Donald Trump.
After being transferred from Florida last week, Sayoc and his attorney Sarah Baumgartel appeared Friday in the New York courtroom of U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. He is being held without bail.
Last month, Sayoc is suspected of mailing 16 improvised explosive devices to 13 people throughout the country including President Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire Richard Soros and California Sen. Kamala Harris. None of the bombs detonated.
If found guilty, the 56-year old Sayoc could receive a life sentence.
“Sayoc’s alleged conduct put numerous lives at risk. It was also an assault on a nation that values the rule of law, a free press, and tolerance of differences without rancor or resort to violence. Thanks to the diligent and determined work of our law enforcement partners here and across the country, it took just five days to identify and apprehend Sayoc and end his reign of terror. He now faces justice from a nation of laws,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman for the Southern District of New York.
Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service recovered 16 padded manila envelopes containing IEDs allegedly mailed by Sayoc from Florida to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Atlanta and California.
Sayoc’s alleged victims, listed alphabetically, were former Vice President Joseph Biden, Senator Cory Booker, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, Robert De Niro, Senator Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama, George Soros, Thomas Steyer, and Rep. Maxine Walters.
Each of the 16 envelopes allegedly mailed by Sayoc had similar features, including the return addressee “Debbie Wasserman Shultz” at an address in “Florids,” (sic) six self-adhesive postage stamps bearing the American flag, and address labels printed on white paper with blank ink in similar typeface and font size. Each of the 16 envelopes also contained an IED. The 16 IEDs also had similar features, including approximately six inches of PVC pipe packed with explosive material, a small clock, and wiring. Some of the IEDs also contained shards of glass.
Preliminary analysis by the FBI has revealed forensic evidence linking 11 of the 16 mailings to Sayoc. Specifically, latent fingerprints on two of the envelopes have been identified to Sayoc, and there are possible DNA associations between a DNA sample collected from Sayoc prior to his arrest in this case and DNA found on components from 10 of the IEDs (including one of the IEDs that was mailed in an envelope from which a latent fingerprint identified to Sayoc was recovered).
The FBI arrested Sayoc in Plantation, Florida, on Oct. 26 – less than five days after the Oct. 22 recovery of the first IED, which Sayoc allegedly mailed to Soros in New York. The FBI seized a laptop from Sayoc’s van in connection with the arrest that contained lists of physical addresses that match many of the labels on the envelopes that Sayoc allegedly mailed.
The lists were saved at a file path on the laptop that includes a variant of Sayoc’s first name: “Users/Ceasar/Documents.” A document from that path, titled “Debbie W.docx” and bearing a creation date of July 26, contained repeated copies of an address for “Debbie W. Schultz” in Sunrise, Florida, that is nearly identical, except for typographical errors, to the return address that Sayoc allegedly used on the packages.
Sayoc’s late father was from the Philippines who married a U.S. citizen. The suspected mail bomber’s social media accounts made dubious claims of being a descendent of prominent individuals in the Philippines with the same last name.
Authorities found a laptop in his van when he was arrested. In those same social media accounts, which have been deleted or blocked, there were pictures of him at pro-Trump rallies wearing the distinctive red MAGA cap.
He is estranged from his family and for the last several months, he reportedly was living out of his van while working as bouncer at a nightclub. The van was covered with pro-Trump decals and several pictures of people who received the mail bombs, several with the cross-hairs superimposed over them.
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