Something that he drives or in connection to this, the one live on the screen right now, and we will continue to get some more information as to what he is charged with. We should be hopefully getting that in the next hour or so. All right. Our justice correspondent pete William S Williams is also reporting that dna evidence played a role in his arrest. I am going to step aside and Andrea Mitchell reports starts now. Thank you, craig. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington, and breaking news with the 12 packages containing explosive devices. And we are told that florida resident Cesar Sayoc Jr. Has been arrested in a string of mailed bombs. We will have a Press Conference at 2 30 with more details. And to today, we are told that cory booker, and James Clapper, those men joining the growing list of public figures critical of President Trump, and that
list is two former president s, and democratic officials, and democratic Law Officials and a leading democratic donor. And now, joining me is Kerry Sanders and msnbc National Analyst clint watt, a fbi agent, and Geoff Bennett, and investigations reporter tom winter. Tom tom, lets start with you. Andrea, the reporting from my colleag colleagues Jonathan Dienst and Pete Williamss who is on the way to the Justice Department now is that Cesar Sayoc Jr. Is the person taken into the cust dichlt he is 56 years old and from florida and he lived in new york at some point, and trying to get some clarify if it is new york city or new york state, but either way, Cesar Sayoc Jr. Is taken into custody, and charged in connection with the Bombing Probe that we have been talking about in the last several days,
andrea. And so far, we have been confirming 12 packages in total appear to have been sent or involved with this Cesar Sayoc Jr. , but it is 12 packages in total that we have confirmed and another package in california addressed to senator kamal harris of that, and we dont know whether that package is connected to what we are talking about here. And so what you are looking at on screen in this blue tarp,p and inside of that is a van, and they were able to look at that before it was tarped and transported to the presumably fbi facilities at the Miami Field Office to be processed and looked at. There were some right wing propaganda is the way it is described to me through the Law Enforcement channels that was on the van, and likely at the location of the arrest according to Pete Williams. So to recap, Cesar Sayoc Jr. Has
been arrested in connection with the Bombing Probe that we have been talking about for the last few days. And there is to be a Press Conference this Afternoon Led by the joint Terrorism Task force, and in connection with the nypd, and you can see him as officer or detective there as part of it and the fbi and nbc news reported that the officials were circling florida as a location of where the package may have been sent. Several hours ago around 10 00 a. M. , myself and my colleagues here, Pete Williams and i started to get an indication that there had been or there was somebody that they were strongly considering and strongly eyeing in connection with this bombing, and at that time, the person was described as a male in his 50s and now we have more detail on who that person is, and in fact, that person has been take then into to custody. Andrea. And we dont know if this is
the only person who may be involved or may be of interest in connection to the packages . That is exactly correct. When these investigations happen, they make and a arrest to stop the clock on this particular individual, and they will see if that person speaks to them, and this Cesar Sayoc Jr. , and in addition to that, we dont know if there are other individuals to take a look at. I will tell you that typically in the investigations, and this is typically, it is just one person who is involved, ale though others sometimes have knowledge of that. And so that is something that we need to wait and see is the next few hours and days progress, andrea, to see whether or not anybody had knowledge of this ahead of time, and whether anybody was aware of the parts and the things that he was purchasing for this. Obviously, 12 packages that we have confirmed so far. That is a significant amount. So if they were all filled with some sort of a low explosive powder, which is the way it is is described to us, and then
some indication that maybe they werent, and there is still a significant amount of powder to pick up at some point. So those are all of the thing ths that are for the investigation to come, and those are all things that will expect to be he hearing in the coming hours and days. We do know that the case is going to be prosecuted by the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york, and those are the federal prosecutors based here. As Pete Williams explained clearly before, a number of the packages were obviously received here in new york, and the package that was sent for john brennan care of cnn and the package to James Clapper care of cnn and the package sent to Hillary Clinton as well as the package sent to george soros, and the package that was sent to Robert De Niro and a significant amount of packages sent in connection to the case were sent to new york, and the federal prosecutors here have a tremendous amount of experience dealing with these types of c e
cases if in fact he is charged with the terrorism counts, then i would think, andrea, a Weapons Of Mass Destruction charge here, but we will wait to see once we get the complaint. And of course, what he is charged with today, he could face additional charges in the days and weeks ahead as the grand jury would presumably come back with an indictment. At least today, a decent sense with what they believe they think he did, and with the evidence that the fbi says they will get against him in order to make the arrest and in order to take this van that we are looking at right now, which is i suspect on the way to the field office in miami. And so that is the lat est that we have at this point, andrea, and we will continue the develop this out a little bit. And in addition as i mentioned in the top, this person is believed to have a criminal record, and we may have a book photo from one of the prior arrests that we hope to share with you in the next few minutes. Tom, thank you very much, and as you continue to report on this, and Kerry Sanders in florida, and we are seeing the
extraordinary scene. The aerials now of this flat bed truck carrying the van. Do we know where they are taking the van which is obviously critical evidence, kerry . Well, it is yeah. At this point, they are traching the van, and it looked like they were heading to the Florida Turnpike and heading south, and they would be taking it to the Warehouse Facility that the folks at the fbi use, and where they can work under cover of secrecy, and what they dont need is helicopters or anything fly flying overhead and one of the reasons they covered in blue tarps. I am in the parking lot where they found the van and took the Person Of Interest into custody. We are in the process of getting the camera out to sort of show you the scene here which at this point is crawling with more reporters and cameras than anybody who may have witnessed anything. I dont see anybody who appears to have been out in the parking lot at the time or if they were,
they have since left. We know that when the plantation, florida, Police Department took in, they took quick precautions to move people out of the area. Because these are package bombs, there is no way to know if the person who is suspected here to be responsibility may have had explosives inside of that van, aed on so all efforts and precautions taken to make sure that everything was as safe as possible. So at this point, the van which passed right by me on u. S. 441 here passed with something on the back, and maybet it looked like a buy sibuicycle or a scoot folks who Cannot Walk Well might have had on the back to get around, but at this point, it is a very Significant Development and in what has been an incredibly tense days in our nation as packages with bombs
have been turning up all addressed to those who are either democrats or those who are critics of president donald trump. Andr andrea. Thank you, kerry. And clint watts, from your experience, we dont know exactly how this arrest went down. But they clearly had a Flatbed Truck ready, and that is looking like a precise fbi investigation. I imagine that they plotted this out, and not to say that they do it a lot, but it is pretty textbook about how they go to apprehend people in these circumstances. You can look back to other cases, and Kevin Harfism who is an extremist who planted a bomb in spokane, washington, and they have gone through that before, and even the d. C. Snipers they intercepted them the on a highway using a similar technique, and in a sense a planned raid the to try to get person, and apprehend them peacefully. I think that the other thing
that we can look at is that this is showing the value of forensic evidence, and what has been an opportunity, and what is an awful situation is that the bombs did not detonate, and that is leaving lots of Human Forensics out there, and even yesterday, i think that most people assumed that this would happen if not today by the end of the weekend which is that you have a lot of signatures, both in terms of the mail system, and you have a lot of Human Forensics, and you have a clear target list that, you know, aligns in a Lodgical Way Based N the motives potentially of the bo bomber. So i am not surprised that they close odd then very quickly. And some things to think about is why could we do this so quickly as a country. If people remember back to the anthrax case, and that is one of the times when we started to developing a way to track packages through the mail system, and i have a feeling that all of the investment in the Counter Terrorism years as well has paid off today to where the fbi, and these task forces can quickly descend and run this
down before we see more bombs potentially hitting the mail or being delivered places. And pcomparing to the the austi bombings which was more complex and dangerous situation. To that point on 52nd street in new york, outside of the postal facility today, the deputy for Counter Terrorism in new york for the Nypd John Miller did a shout out to the 6,000 post tall work postal workers here on the front line. And now, coming from the department of tobacco and alcohol and firearms is with us. And they have spotted a envelope today, and they have been at more of risk than anyone else, because these packages were to be intercepted by the law enfor
enforcement who have Secret Service security, but in fact all of them went through the mail system. Jim . Well, the Postal Service is just great, and every last employee on the lookout for, this and the armed Postal Inspection Service is great. And some key points here, and i have written many of the criminal complaints on the bombers and i can telle you how they develop and tell you what likely happened here as well. I think that, once they had the lead to the south florida, it would not be unusual for the task force to get a tip on a guy like this driving down the street with with the president s face and all of the right wing Bumper Stickers on the varngs and this is a guy that you get the tip on, and you would have his name. And of course, the lab would be work working to develop fingerprints and dna and i can tell you that on ten unexploded bombs, and i have worked on many, many of the bombs, that is is a fingerprint party underneath the tape, and
hair and dna and once you the name ofp someone, you have fingerprints and dna, and the person that you have the name of, wh you have got it from a tip, a Cell Tow Thor Inte ce Tower Intercept or the post office and he has a criminal arrest with fingerprints, it is academic that you check that arrest and get the fingerprints and we have literally sat there on the trunk of the card with the Fingerprint Card with the latent lift, and get the examiner that is the same guy, and this is likely what we will see in the criminal complaint, and that is the way we write them, and we will get down to the brass tacks, and this guys fingerprint was found underneath the tape, and found on joe biden or Maxine Waters and based on the evidence, i want to have a Warrant Judge for this guy to send all of these identical Package Packages or in fact, we match the fingerprint on seven of the
packages or whatever. So they will get down the basics, and they dont want to get into the affidavit and into all of this great superfluous stuff, and what you are trying to get for the Magistrate Judge, and federal Magistrate Judge is to say, yes, you have probable cause to believe that this man is responsible for the bomb. And then we get into the grand jury process, and most likely the charges, and how we would do this is the possession and the manufacture of the destructive devices which is basically the atf law, and the law that the atf enforces. And because it is simpler and easier to say that. He was in possession and manufactured the bombs. Simple, federal, fingerprint and keep it straight. They could add in Weapons Of Mass Destruction and use other charges bush we try to be simple in the complaint normally,
because we are trying to hold him, and prove probable cause, and that is what we will see here, and it is great work by the fbi, and the atf, and the Postal Service, and all of the postal employees and the nypd and the plantation police, and miamidade, and i mean, every Single Agency in maryland and across the country, super work. And let me interrupt you for a second and go to tom winter, because he has a e phofoe photo man who has been arrested. Yes, we were able to get this and full credit to the colleague Jonathan Dienst and he is Cesar Sayoc Jr jr. , and the people sa that he is the man to be charged in connection with this investigation into the 12 bombs sent across the country here. And so the person on the right, that is a previous booking photo. I tried to get into the local sheriffs office, broward sheriffs office, and they are
the ones who might be bringing him n and i have been trying to take a look at the he has been posted yet, but he has not been. And this is from a prior arrest, and speaking of the prior arrests, andrea, i have a one, two, three, four about sev sevenpage florida criminal record. His Background Search In The State Of Florida and those are public records that we can get our hands on, and in matching up the age of this individual with the records, it appears, and we will wait for a little bit of confirmation that he has a significant criminal history and i had been told this earlier today that he had a criminal history that dates back to, it appears to be dating back to the 1990s. That he was on Law Enforcements radar, a sond we will take a little bit of a detailed look at this before we start to put it out there, and so, again, the person on the right is 56yearold Cesar Sayoc Jr. And i am looking at my colleagues there poring over the record, and trying to match together what type of criminal history he has, and we are told that he definitely has one. In addition to, that andrea, we are looking at the Social Media Records in social media accounts that this individual may have, and once we have guaranteeed and just to kind of pulled back the curtain a little bit for the people lis h inning to us, and watching us, there are, when these arrests are announced, there are a number of fake accounts that are typically put out on facebook, twitter, and et cetera saying they belong to the person who has been arrested for whatever crime it is in these high profile cases. So what we want to make sure that we do, andrea, a lot of informat