![\"\"](\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Justice1a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOJ – 8\/5\/19 – Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced today that CESAR ALTIERI SAYOC was sentenced today to 20 years in prison in connection with his mailing of 16 improvised explosive devices to victims across the country.\u00a0 SAYOC pled guilty to a 65-count Superseding Information on March 21, 2019, before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who also imposed today\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:\u00a0 \u201cCesar Sayoc assembled and mailed explosive devices to high-ranking officials and former elected leaders to incite fear and to terrorize his victims. \u00a0Though thankfully no one was hurt by his actions, Sayoc\u2019s domestic terrorism challenged our nation\u2019s cherished tradition of peaceful political discourse. \u00a0For his wanton disregard of the safety of so many people, Sayoc will now spend 20 years in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said:\u00a0 \u201cTime and again, we have seen individuals attempt to express political views and resolve political disagreements through violence. \u00a0Cesar Sayoc has now been sentenced for acts of domestic terrorism that are repulsive to all Americans who cherish a society built on respectful and non-violent political discourse. \u00a0Our democracy depends on our debating our strongly held views peacefully and respectfully, and when someone does not, on our prosecuting and punishing those who do not abide by these values. \u00a0I applaud the efforts of so many in our law enforcement community whose alertness and tirelessness led to the prompt arrest of the defendant before he was able to injure anyone, as well as those whose efforts led to today\u2019s sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Superseding Information, court filings, and statements made during court proceedings:<\/p>\n
In October 2018, SAYOC mailed from Florida 16 padded envelopes, each containing an improvised explosive device (\u201cIED\u201d), to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Georgia, and California.\u00a0 In alphabetical order, SAYOC\u2019S intended victims (the \u201cVictims\u201d) 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 Representative Maxine Walters.\u00a0 Between October 22 and November 2, 2018, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (\u201cFBI\u201d) and the U.S. Postal Service recovered all of the 16 IEDs mailed by SAYOC.<\/p>\n
Each of the IEDs mailed by SAYOC contained a mix of explosive powder from fireworks, shards of glass, and pool chemicals, designed to maximize potential injuries, damage, and the burning of his intended Victims\u2019 skin.\u00a0 On the outside of each IED, SAYOC placed photographs of each of the Victims, and sometimes their families and others, with a red \u201cX\u201d over their faces.\u00a0 SAYOC also affixed black flags, similar in appearance to banners used by ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, to the outside of the IEDs.<\/p>\n
SAYOC had posted incendiary comments about liberal political figures online since at least 2011.\u00a0 In the months prior to mailing the IEDs, SAYOC incited violence against the Victims, conveyed direct threats against them, and researched where and how to carry out his attack.\u00a0 For example, in April 2016, he wrote that former President Barack Obama\u2019s \u201chead need[ed] to be chopped off\u201d and he wished \u201cdeath\u201d to George Soros and former Attorney General Eric Holder.\u00a0 In April 2017, SAYOC wished \u201cDeath\u201d to \u201call Clintons\u201d and in November 2017 posted \u201cYour days are number[ed] Steyer[].\u201d\u00a0 Beginning in December 2017, SAYOC researched the Victims and their addresses.\u00a0 For example, on December 23, 2017, SAYOC searched for the address of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and, over the course of the ensuing months, SAYOC repeatedly searched for the \u201chome address\u201d or \u201caddress\u201d of several of the Victims, and SAYOC intensified these searches in the days before his attack.\u00a0 Finally, SAYOC researched online how to make a \u201cletter bomb\u201d and watched videos depicting explosions.<\/p>\n
The FBI arrested SAYOC in Plantation, Florida, on October 26, 2018\u2014less than five days after the October 22 recovery of the first IED, which SAYOC mailed to Soros in New York.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n
In addition to his prison sentence, SAYOC, 57, of Florida, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.<\/p>\n
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding efforts of the FBI\u2019s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which principally consists of agents from the FBI and detectives from the New York City Police Department, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.\u00a0 Mr. Berman also thanked the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Offices for the Southern District of Florida, the District of Columbia, the District of Delaware, the District of New Jersey, the Central District of California, the Eastern District of California, the Northern District of California, and the Northern District of Georgia for their assistance in the investigation.<\/p>\n
This prosecution is being handled by the Office\u2019s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit.\u00a0 Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg, Emil J. Bove III, Jane Kim, and Jason A. Richman are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney David Cora of the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice\u2019s National Security Division.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOJ – 8\/5\/19 – Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced today that CESAR ALTIERI SAYOC was sentenced today to 20 years in prison in connection with his mailing of 16 improvised explosive devices to victims across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26946,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26945\/revisions\/26946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}