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US federal investigators are searching coast to coast for a suspect terrorising a growing list of prominent critics of Donald Trump by sending them bombs – with former vice president Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro the latest to be targeted.
Two packages for Mr Biden were intercepted in Delaware, the FBI said, while another was received at a building housing a restaurant and production company owned by De Niro in New York City. Investigators said they matched parcels which contained pipe bombs sent to former president Barack Obama and several other Democrats this week.
It is believed that investigators have turned their attention to Florida, with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirming that at least some of the packages were mailed in in the state. “Some of the packages went through the mail. They originated, some of them, from Florida,” she told Fox News. “I am confident that this person or people will be brought to justice.”
The latest discoveries mean that eight vocal critics of Mr Trump have been targeted by at least 10 packages. All were intercepted and there have been no injuries.
At a press conference on Thursday, officials in New York would not discuss possible motives or details on how the packages found their way into the US postal system. Nor would they say why none of the packages had detonated, but they stressed they were still treating them as “live devices”.
“As far as a hoax device, we’re not treating it that way,” said Police Commissioner James O’Neill. The case is being treated as domestic terrorism.
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Late on Thursday, the Miami-Dade Police Department’s bomb squad and K-9 unit announced it had helped sweep a US Postal Service facility in Opa-locka, Florida. “This assistance is as a precautionary measure,” the department said.
The series of bomb alerts began on Monday and would spread across locations in New York, the Washington DC area and Florida. A number of them were called pipe bombs.
The first was found in the post box of billionaire businessman George Soros. Packages were also sent to a New York home of Hillary and Bill Clinton and to Mr Obama and Congresswoman Maxine Waters in Washington DC. A second package addressed to California Democrat Ms Waters was found in Los Angeles.
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CNN’s New York office was evacuated on Wednesday morning after a package addressed to former CIA director John Brennan was found in its mailroom. In Florida, another package was discovered that was addressed to former attorney general Eric Holder.
The packages are being analysed by the FBI at its laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, with authorities reluctant to go public with more than board patterns.
At least five of the packages, including the one sent to Mr Soros, involved manila envelopes addressed to prominent Trump critics and carried a similar arrangement of labelling and US postage stamps. The Florida address of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz was listed as the return address of most of the packages.
Investigators were seeking forensic clues left on the unexploded packages and were following other leads. A number of the packages had travelled through the US Postal Service, although at an afternoon press conference it was said none had been seen for at least eight hours.
However, John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said that authorities “don’t know” yet if other devices were on the way to being delivered and urged Americans to remain vigilant.
That vigilance was seen in the De Niro case, with NYPD Commissioner Mr O’Neil also praising the retired detective who called the emergency services in the pre-dawn hours on Thursday because the images he was seeing on television resembled a package he had intercepted on its way to the actor.
If you want to see how the day progressed, follow the live blog below
John Brennan, the former CIA director whose name was on the package containing the explosive device sent to CNN, has responded to Mr Trump's tweet about the media. He calls on the president to "clean up his act".
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, speaking in an interview on Fox News, said the White House continued to condemn any attempted violence and would continue to direct federal resources toward the ongoing investigation.
The US Postal Service is said to be helping investigators check mail processing facilities nationwide for packages that may appear similar to the others sent to top Democrats.
Stan Rosenfield, spokesperson for Robert De Niro, has said he has not managed to speak to the star yet this morning, but told CNN:
“[It is] Extremely disturbing and frightening. It seems that all the people that were targeted have one thing in common and that is their political beliefs. That is the only thing I can conclude at this point”
Fox News reporter Chris O'Connell has obtained a picture of what is believed to be the package sent to Joe Biden that was found at the facility in Wilmington.
Law enforcement officials have told the Associated Press that the suspected explosive device sent to Robert De Niro may have been sitting in the mailroom of his building for a day or more before it was discovered.
Two officials said that a person affiliated with the Tribeca Film Center was off work when he saw an image on the Internet and elsewhere of the package containing a crude pipe bomb sent to CNN.
That person, who has a background in law enforcement, recalled seeing a similar package at the film centre mailroom earlier and reported it to police.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has defended President Trump's criticism of the media in the wake of discoveries
"The President has condemned violence in all forms, has done that since Day 1, will continue to do that. But certainly feels that everyone has a role to play," Ms Sanders said.
When asked by CNN - a target for one of the packages - about whether he regrets calling political opponents "evil," Ms Sanders said that Mr Trump feels "we should call out despicable acts, which is exactly what he has done over the last 24 hours."
When pressed about whether the term "evil" was appropriate, Ms Sanders lashed out at CNN: "It's a word people have used on your network a number of times, not only to describe the president but many people that work in this administration."
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