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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
The packages that were sent to CNN, the Clintons, and actor Robert De Niro were taken to Rodman's Neck shooting range and then to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, this afternoon, according to John Miller, deputy commissioner for NYPD's Intelligence and Counterterrorism.
The packages were sent “to be examined by [FBI’s] explosives people so that all the evidence from all of these incidents are in one place,” he said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was asked in Lancaster, New York, about the devices that were sent to him and other prominent Democrats this week - here is his response:
“We’ve got to turn off this hate machine. We’ve got to come together. The American public and all over the nation. People want us to be more civil. People want us to choose hope over hate.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who had her Florida office location placed as the return address on most of the packages sent, has spoken about receiving a package addressed to Eric Holder.
"The last couple of days have been trying for many of us, to say the least. As we know, there will always be those who use distraction, threats and even violence to accomplish their ends," she said Thursday.
- A Miami-Dade police bomb squad have searched a mail facility in Opa-Locka, Florida.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has confirmed 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.”
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