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Man Arrested Over Mail Bombs Identified; Jackie Speier on Bomb Case; Record of Threat to Bomb in 2002. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 26, 2018 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: On that a little bit later today from the Justice Department.

Thank you for being with us this last hour of breaking news on INSIDE POLITICS. Please stay with us though. Our breaking news coverage continues right now with Wolf Blitzer.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

We have breaking news this hour.

The arrest of a person in connection with now 12 suspicious packages addressed to critics of President Trump. Police in south Florida, not far from Miami, taking one person into custody, also seizing a vehicle that could have been used in this attack. The word of an arrest coming just a little while ago after the discovery of two more packages. One stopped at a mail sorting facility in New York City addressed to the former director of national intelligence James Clapper, and that was addressed to CNN. Another device stopped at a sorting facility in Florida addressed to the New Jersey office of the Democratic senator, Cory Booker.

Our CNN correspondent Randi Kaye is in Plantation, Florida, where she's following all these late breaking developments.

So, tell us, first of all, Randi, what we know about the suspect.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we can tell you that the suspect was a customer here at the Auto Zone just over my -- just in front of me here. That is where he was arrested. He lived in the Hollywood, Florida, area. In the Aventura, Florida, area, which is about a half -- half an hour or so from here.

But what I should tell you right now -- I'm sure you can see all these media gathered here around me -- what's going on here right now is in this car is a group of FBI agents. They have been inside the Auto Zone just over here for about the last hour, going through the files, taking pictures. This is where the arrest was made of the suspect, where he was taken into custody, where the vehicle was taken into custody as well. So the media, of course, followed the FBI agents outside. They were inside taking pictures of the Auto Zone. They were inside going through the files in the computer. Clearly, if this man was a customer here, they might have been looking for what he purchased here. Maybe some of that could be connected to these pipe bombs that were sent around the country.

But we were here earlier when that vehicle was taken away and the blue tarp was covered over it. It had pictures of Donald Trump on it. Pictures of Mike Pence on it. It had the word CNN written on it as well. And that was taken away just right from here and then taken to a facility where it will be looked at for possible traces of evidence, possible envelopes, possible purchases from here at the Auto Zone, Wolf.

So it's been a very busy morning here. The main highways here were closed for quite some while. We had -- quite a while. We had some trouble getting into this area. But now that we've been in, basically for the last 45 minutes or so, we've just been watching these FBI agents who are now sitting in their car trying to figure out likely how to get out of there. But they were inside, very busy, looking at all of these files and all of this information.

But it looks as though the FBI is clearing out of the area. The state police have cleared out of the area. There's more media here right now, Wolf, an anything else.

That's the latest form here in Plantation, Florida.

BLITZER: And the van, with all those stickers on the sides, the windows of the van, tell us, first of all, where it was taken and some of our viewers can make out some of those stickers, including one very supportive sticker, lots of supportive stickers of President Trump, Vice President Pence, but also, if you look at the bottom left hand corner, you see a sticker saying "CNN sucks."

KAYE: Absolutely. There was -- there was quite a bit of a display on that van. And very likely it's why they covered it up with that blue tarp. They probably consider much of that evidence. There were pictures of Donald Trump, as you said, pictures of Mike Pence, and that -- the " CNN sucks," which, you know, is certainly interesting given who these pipe bombs were directed to if that van is indeed, as related, as clearly the FBI and investigators believe. If goes and really sticks with the tone of who these pipe bombs were directed to, where they -- who they say they were sent from, even, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with the name spelled wrong, here in Florida. So -- the former DNC chair.

So it is interesting to see what was on that van. And clearly they believe they have the right person. They've been working on this. They were zeroing in on Florida since yesterday, we understand. And they made that arrest this morning here at the Auto Zone, along with that van, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, Randi, this is a development that's unfolding, even as we speak. What investigators need to know first and foremost, are there more packages on the way? What do we know about that?

KAYE: Well, that's what we don't -- that's what's unclear. Certainly we don't know if this man is cooperating with investigators. He was just taken into custody earlier this morning. We don't know if he was taken into custody without incident. We don't know if he said anything when he was taken into custody. We don't know how long they had even been tracking him, if they had been tracking him for days, or a few days, or even just the last 24 hours.

[13:05:02] There goes the FBI, along with their evidence, pulling away from the Auto Zone here.

But, sure, that is definitely one of the questions that they are going to be asking this guy, if there were any more packages on the way. Certainly that is the utmost -- of utmost importance here in this case. Whether or not he will tell them, Wolf, is something that remains to be seen. But it's unclear at this point, at least from our point of view, if there are more packages in the mail.

BLITZER: All right, Randi Kaye on the scene for us. I know you're working your sources over there. We'll get back to you.

Joining us now, our justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who's been doing a lot of reporting on this, and our CNN law enforcement analyst Art Roderick, who's also joining us.

Evan, first to you.

Tell us about this individual. What do we know about him?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Cesar Sayoc is 56 years old, Wolf. He lives -- the last address we have for him is in Aventura, Florida, which is a suburb just north of Miami. And the location that Randi's at is the place that he was arrested at, which was an Auto Zone parking lot just to the west of there. The Miami field office for the FBI is just a few miles west of that location. So all that entire area was really the focus of the last 24, 36 hours of law enforcement.

They had a pretty good idea yesterday that the facility in Opa Locka was the nexus of this. At least some of the packages had been identified as haven been processed in that location. And that was a huge, huge breakthrough for the investigation simply because it at least helped them narrow down the location of where they were searching for, the places where these things were shipped from. And that's what was a huge breakthrough for the investigators.

Another big clue was, Wolf, you know, he made mistakes. You have 12 packages at least, a 13th is being investigated in Sacramento that was addressed to Kamala Harris. That one is still -- we're not sure whether it's related or not, but at least 12 of these packages have now been examined or are being examined by forensic experts at the FBI.

And he made some mistakes. And they were able to retrieve some DNA from at least one of the packages. And that really was another big clue for the investigators. And once you have that, I think certainly overnight, and this morning, the investigators had a change in tone. You could sense that they really believed they were going to -- they were about to get this guy.

Certainly this morning they were on him. They were certainly up on his cell phones to keep track and make sure that they could do this safely. But one of the things that they didn't want to do was arrest him in his home because of the nature of -- the nature of that. It could -- you know, perhaps if he had additional explosives, that's another thing that they were concerned about. So that's the reason why you see they made this arrest away from where he lived.

But, again, certainly, over the last 24, 36 hours, they have been working this. The FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, all of them were working very tirelessly to try to make sure they found this man. And the big key breakthroughs happened over the last 24 hours or so. You saw the -- the focus there in Opa Locka, Florida, the place where some of these packages went through. And then, like I said, the DNA that they were able to retrieve from at least one of the packages.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, very excellent law enforcement going on.

Art, you -- walk us through the process that led law enforcement to this Cesar Sayoc, 56 years old. He apparently has a pretty significant criminal background as well.

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: He does have a significant criminal background that goes back to at least, as far as I can figure, to 2002.

You know, when this process all started -- we've been talking about it for a couple of days now -- the key was we had 10 devices. And that's the key right there. Ten of those devices. Now, unless you're in the high end scientific lab, it's almost impossible not to leave something behind.

You know, we always say in law enforcement, you know, when you enter a room, you commit a crime, you always leave something behind. And, in this case, it sounds like it was DNA, a possible fingerprint.

What's interesting is, he worked at Auto Zone, OK. Were some of the parts of the devices coming from Auto Zone? Did some of them come out of his work area? So this is going to be -- the real investigation starts now.

We were in the manhunt phase. Now we're in the investigative phase where they have to put together evidence to complete this prosecution. And that's exactly what they're doing right now.

BLITZER: Do we have any information, Evan, on whether they suspect he acted alone or there were other accomplices?

Evan -- Evan is now working his sources.

Have you had any indication of that? Because they're looking to see who he has been in touch with.

RODERICK: Exactly right. I mean talking to profilers, they seem to think this might be one individual because all the devices are very similar. They were packaged very similar. And so they don't think there's other accomplices. But who else was he talking to? Did he have social media? Was he on gaming devices? That's going to be the key that they're doing right now. In fact, they have the van in custody. You know, is there evidence in the van. But also, what's going on at his apartment or his home is also going to be key once they execute search warrants.

[13:10:13] BLITZER: And I assume they've gone through his social media and taken a look at that.

RODERICK: Right.

BLITZER: And I wonder if they were listening to his phone conversations on his cell phone over the past couple days.

RODERICK: I -- in this particular case, because of threat to life, I'm sure they had all those things in place, because we know they were doing surveillance for at least 24 hours at this particular time.

BLITZER: And he advertised his political views on that van.

RODERICK: Yes.

BLITZER: If you take a look at all those stickers, the support for President Trump, for Vice President Pence, also the hatred, drain the swamp and then he has a whole bunch of pictures of Democrats and media personalities on that. And then the "CNN sucks" poster.

RODERICK: Right.

BLITZER: But if you take a look at all the others, it was very clear, you can see some of the -- some of the things that he was posting on that van.

RODERICK: Yes.

BLITZER: So it was well-known where his personal views were to the right, very, very supportive of the president.

RODERICK: Yes, I mean, that -- when you work a case like this, and probably a day or so ago, day and a half ago, everything started falling into place once they started targeting this particular individual. You know, I'm sure they had the van under surveillance and obviously they're looking at the stickers, oh my gosh, this falls into the type of profile of individual we're looking for.

So things started falling into place. They kept him under surveillance. They got every piece of -- you know, paper that they needed from court to execute the arrest warrant, search warrants and then they picked their spot to make the arrest.

BLITZER: And they took the van very carefully, because there could be potentially a lot of evidence inside the van. That's why they took it to a secure FBI facility.

RODERICK: Exactly. And, you know, they had the canine come through there first to make sure that there was no explosive materials in there. And then they packed that up and they took it off and right now they're going through it with a fine tooth comb.

BLITZER: All right, Art, you're going to be with us, so don't go too far away.

I want to bring in California Congresswoman Jackie Speier. She's a Democrat. She's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

First, I want you to listen to what the president said last hour. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must never allow political violence to take root in America. Cannot let it happen. And I'm committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, so what's your reaction, congresswoman?

REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D), CALIFORNIA: Total hypocrisy. I mean he spends most of his time at his rallies throwing verbal bombs at all the people that receive these bombs in the mail. Even in that particular statement he made, he would not refer to them as bombs. He referred to them as packages or devices.

He is truly unable to unify this country because unless he's scripted, he is always taking pot shots at people because he really has an anti- social behavior that has worked for him for most of his where he can just attack people and they cower. And the American people recognize his pattern now and I think are going to start tuning him out.

I would just like to say, Wolf, that thank God the FBI was there to do its job. You know, the president has spent much of the last two years attacking the FBI. A barrage of attacks of the FBI, saying they weren't doing their job. Well, they do their job every single day. He doesn't like it when they're investigating him. But in this case, they investigated and found the bomb maker.

BLITZER: Yes, He did say, in his remarks, he called them terrorizing events that are despicable and have no place in our society. So he did call it a terrorizing event.

But earlier in the day, he sent out a tweet, this is before they apprehended the suspect. I'll read it to you. Republicans are doing so well in early voting and at the polls and now this, quote, bomb stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows. News not talking politics. Very unfortunate. What is going on.

That was then, a few hours before, and then all of a sudden they arrest this individual and he's calling it a terrorize -- these terrorizing effects that are despicable, have no place in our society. What do you think of the contrast?

SPEIER: I think that shows everyone that you can't believe what he says from one moment to the next because he flips. And it's so disastrous to have a president who is not on an even keel, that does not unify this country.

I don't believe a word he says when he said he's going to unify us because I guarantee you at his next rally he is going to take pot shots at anyone who has criticized him. And the fact that every one of these recipients were persons who he was threatened by or who had made caustic comments about him, or who were former opponents of his, would suggest to me that he telegraphs very well to those that want to do harm to people.

[13:15:17] BLITZER: You know, he himself says these were terrorizing effects that are despicable. And you take a look at the targets of these terrorizing events, two former presidents of the United States, a former vice president of the United States, a former attorney general, a director of national intelligence, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. He doesn't mention any of them, he just says some high ranking individuals. He doesn't mention CNN by name, he just says a media organization. And he certainly, as far as we know, he has not made any phone calls to reassure the individuals who were targeted, and he says these are terrorizing events, he hasn't made any phone calls to even speak to the former presidents. What do you make of that?

SPEIER: Well, it just suggests to me that he's a phony. That it's always been about him. It will always be about him. That he doesn't have an empathetic cell in his body. And the result is that he doesn't act presidential and he doesn't reach out to those who were the subjects of this harm had those bombs detonated.

BLITZER: Yes, it's a very, very -- as the president correctly says, these were terrorizing events. Whether the bombs went off or didn't go off, they certainly terrorized and created a lot of fear in so many individuals. Not just the high profile people who were specifically targeted, but you think of all those workers in mailrooms, Postal Service employees, Secret Service employees. This could have been a real, real disaster.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier, thanks so much for joining us.

SPEIER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I want to bring in our Rene Marsh. She's getting some new information right now.

Rene, what are you picking up?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we'll be -- our team here has been digging into the background of Cesar Sayoc, 56 years old, arrested for these pipe -- mailed pipe bombs. And we're learning that he does have a criminal history. He has a string of arrests dating back to the early 1990s. I want to highlight one that really jumps out. A 2002 arrest by Miami

Police for an offense described in online records, and I'm quoting, threat to bomb and threaten to discharge destructive device.

Now, we should point out that the online records do not provide much detail as far as the case goes, but, again, those words clearly listed there. Again, we see a total of eight arrest offenses in his online records. This is all according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Records. Everything from grand theft, battery, fraud, drug possession, as well as multiple probation violations. So it is clear that at least authorities in the south Florida area very familiar with this man because he does have quite an extensive criminal history here.

Again, though, the most notable at this point from what we are seeing, a 2002 arrest in -- by Miami Police where they described the offense as a threat to bomb.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, very important information, Rene. Thank you very much. I know you're continuing to work your sources as well.

Art, you think about how they found this individual. Look at that criminal background.

RODERICK: Right.

BLITZER: Clearly law enforcement has his fingerprints. They know all about him. If, in fact, on these packages that were delivered there was a fingerprint inside the package or outside, it clearly could have led to his arrest.

RODERICK: Absolutely. And they could have had his DNA on file too. So either one of those things could definitely lead to his arrest.

I think when you look back at his criminal history, I found the same exact records that they're talking about here. And I saw the 2002 threat to bomb arrest. I mean, obviously, that's a major red flag here and falls right into place with this type of person's psychology. When you put all this extensive criminal history together with what you're looking at, and I'm sure, at this point in time, the FBI has a lot more information regarding his background and his years of criminal history. But it kind of all falls into place for us that, wow, this is more than likely the guy.

The big question is now, was he associating with anybody? Was anybody helping him? What was he saying?

BLITZER: Well, what fits into his profile? Based on what we know, and clearly we don't know a lot --

RODERICK: Yes.

BLITZER: Does it look like an individual with this kind of criminal background, clearly with his very strong political views, and you see them advertised on that van. He makes no secret of that. Does that look like someone who's working with an accomplice or accomplices or someone who is acting alone?

RODERICK: I have to agree with the profilers on this. We said from the very beginning that it looks like this individual is working alone. And what I mean, I don't think -- we might find out he is working with somebody, but maybe not. But I think, what has he been saying to other people? What is he saying to his associates at work? What is he saying to his family? What is he saying to his friends, you know, in Florida? So they have to put all this together and that's exactly what the FBI and the JTTF is doing right now.

[13:20:19] BLITZER: All right, stand by. Evan Perez is getting more information for us right now.

Evan, what are you learning?

PEREZ: Well, Wolf, I mean one of the big things here for investigators, certainly because they've been working this case tirelessly over the last 24, 36 hours, was finding that DNA on at least one of the packages. They were able to use that to then triangulate it with other pieces of information, including the fact that they were able to identify that these packages originated in Florida. At least some of them, they could find, they were -- the Postal Service -- the Postal Inspection Service was able to find that they had -- they came from this -- from this general area.

And then they do all their other police work. I think Art Roderick and certainly some of our other guests can talk to this, but one of the things they do typically, and they've done this in other cases, was to look at cell phone tower records and they can see where someone's cell phone was in the -- was in the area near where some of these were sent.

Again, this is all the police work that's been going on behind the scenes quietly with the FBI, with the Postal Inspection Service, with the ATF over the last 24, 36 hours. And then you saw that surge of presence of officers, certainly even the NYPD was able to send people down to the Miami area to try to focus on this because they were very sure, in the last -- certainly the last 24 hours, that they were going to be able to get him.

Certainly this morning we thought that there were going to be -- there was -- there was a very high likelihood that there was going to be arrests. And now we expect, perhaps in the next hour, we'll hear from the attorney general. This has, obviously, Wolf, become a case of huge national importance. We have the election coming up, obviously. The political targets that are -- that were -- that were the focus of this -- this serial bomber, all of that makes for an important national case with the -- the elections coming up just in a few days. So I think we're going to hear from the attorney general some words about that, the importance of this case, and the importance of the work that these law enforcement officers have been doing over the last 12 to 36 hours in trying to find this man.

BLITZER: And we, of course, salute the federal, the state, the local law enforcement personnel. They've done an amazing job with a very, very speedy arrest.

Evan, thank you very much.

I want to bring in Joe Bellissimo right now. He's a former FBI auditor, a U.S. postal inspector as well.

First of all, give us your reaction, Joe, to the arrest of this individual. Are you surprised that it happened as quickly as it did?

JOE BELLISSIMO, FORMER U.S. POSTAL INSPECTOR: Yes, I am very surprised.

BLITZER: Why? Tell us why.

BELLISSIMO: Normally it takes a while to do the investigation and to get all the facts together. There had to be -- this guy appears to have been sloppy and left -- left some evidence behind on the packages.

BLITZER: And, as a result, they could find him and arrest him.

From your experience, Joe, a package originating, let's say, from a local post office in Florida, headed to say the Time-Warner Center on New York City, how many people would come into contact with that package? I ask the question because I want to know how many people potentially could be in danger.

BELLISSIMO: It would -- it would be -- you'd have a collections driver that would pick it up. It would come down to the general mail facility. It would be sorted. It would go out to -- to the -- they would sort it to the post office it was going to. It would be a truck driver would take it up there. It would come off the truck, go to the post office and be sorted again by the mail -- the letter carrier and then it would delivered. So you're looking at six, seven, eight people, plus all the people around those work stations.

BLITZER: This is a pretty dangerous operation when you think about it. At least 12 of these suspected bombs that were put into the postal service, and maybe a 13th that they're investigating, whether Senator Kamala Harris, they're looking into another suspected package that was delivered onto Sacramento, California. There are a lot of people whose lives potentially could be in danger.

BELLISSIMO: Yes, yes, there were.

BLITZER: And so the postal service individuals, do they appreciate how potentially dangerous their job is?

BELLISSIMO: Yes, they do. And, you know, they go through training to look for these packages, but the thing that the public has to remember, it's nice to have a lifeguard, but it's better to know how to swim. So we want the public to be aware of what to look for on these packages because a lot of times if something is sent, it is not necessarily caught at the post office because with automation there's -- there is a little -- there's not a lot of human contact anymore. People have to handle the packages, but to be sorted in items like that, it's done by automation. So we want to make the public aware of what to look for and a lot of times we would get the call after the package has been delivered to its intended recipient.

[13:25:18] BLITZER: So what advice do you -- a lot of people are watching right now. What advice do you have? What should we be looking for?

BELLISSIMO: Well, you should look for a package that has excessive postage on it. No return address. Misspellings in the addressee or in the return address, if there is a return address on it. No postmark on the package. Things like that. The packages --

BLITZER: When you say no post mark, tell us why that potentially is significant. If it goes through the Postal Service, don't they always put a post mark on those stamps?

BELLISSIMO: Well, I hate to use the word always. It should have a postmark on it if it's gone through the post office.

BLITZER: But sometimes it doesn't?

BELLISSIMO: Yes, but, you know, not everything is perfect.

BLITZER: So I think that's really good advice for individuals out there. The advice you just shared. Be suspicious, especially if there's misspelled words, if it looks like there's a weird return address and it looks like it's written in some sort of weird ways with misspellings. All those are potentially significant clues.

BELLISSIMO: Yes. Yes.

BLITZER: All right.

BELLISSIMO: And if you want -- and if people -- you can go to the United States Postal Service website and look up poster 84, it has everything you need to know to look for suspicious mail.

BLITZER: Joe Bellissimo, thank you so much. Very useful information. We'll, of course, get back to you as well.

We're following the major breaking news right now. Much more on the suspect, much more on the van, the vehicle. We have new information coming in. We'll be right back.

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