Episode leaves us as a country. As the 11th hour gets underway on a busy friday night. Good evening once again from our msnbc headquarters here in new york. Day 645 of the trump administration, and it brought further proof that you should never bet against the feds. A florida man suspected of mailing bombs to high profile democrats indicating the homes of two former president s has been arrested. Earlier today 56yearold cesar sayoc was charged with five federal counts including mailing of explosives, threats against former president s and assault of current or former officials. His First Court Appearance will be on monday. He faces up to 48 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The break in the case came thankfully after a fingerprint was lifted off the outside of one of the packages. One of the bombs was mailed to congresswoman maxine waters. According to officials dna evidence was further found on some of the devices. This morning the fbi seized this white van owned by sayoc that was covered with protrump ti stickers. It was a wellknown and instantly recognizable vehicle in the local area where he lived. Of the visible and colorful imagery on the side, anticnn propaganda, targets and cross hairs aimed at Hillary Clinton and barack obama and Michael Moore and others. As our own Kerry Sanders reported earlier tonight, the suspects very active social media profile paints a picture of an ardent trump supporter. His twitter feed showing him driving to trump rallies, hosting crowd chants attacking cnn, cheering the president on in this selfie video, another recorded as the president spoke. Online sayoc would go after many of the democrats who received devices saying of george soros, you will vanish and attacking congresswom congresswoman Debbie Wasserman shul shuls. He was arrested in 2002 for threatening to throw a bomb. He pleaded guilty and was given a special sentence in which probation was ordered but a formal conviction not made. He was arrested for theft in 1992 and 2014. Earlier tonight an attorney for sayocs family told cnn that his former client was very sick. I interacted with cesar, and if i would say apples, he would say cardboard. He didnt react like a normal individual. He wasnt working on all cylinders, and this is a sad result of someone whos very sick, didnt get the help, became a loner, and then found a cause that adopted and accepted these types of people. He never seemed sophisticated enough to do Something Like hes accused of. I wouldnt be surprised to find out that there were either others who helped prod or encourage him to do this or that the bombs, in fact, were so crudely made they never could have worked. We also learned today that four additional explosive devices have been found. They were mailed to Democratic SenatorsKamala Harris and cory booker. Former director of National Intelligence james clapper, and trump critic and impeachment advocate tom steyer. This brings the total number of devices to 14. Tonight at a rally in North CarolinaPresident Trump praised Law Enforcement for the arrest and called for unity right before he, again, went after the news media. The medias constant unfair coverage, deep hostility, and negative attacks, you know that, only serve to drive people apart and to undermine healthy debate. For example, we have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me and the republican party. Yet, when a Bernie Sanders supporter tried to murder Congressional Republicans and severely wounded a great man named Steve Scalise and others, we did not use that heinous attempt at mass murder for political gain because that would have been wrong. Later in the broadcast well have more on this sudden injection of Bernie Sanders name into this event. Before leaving for North Carolina while still at the white house, President Trump was asked if hed seen the suspects van and if hed reached out to anyone targeted with these devices. I did not. Dy ni did not see my face on th van. I dont know, i heard he was a person who preferred me over others, but i did not see that. If they wanted me to, but i think well probably pass. We should point out that very early this morning technically in the middle of the night 3 14 a. M. East coast time the president turned to twitter and said, quote, funny how lowly rated cnn and others can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of bombs and ridiculously comparing this to september 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing. Yet, when i criticize them, they go wild and scream its just not president ial. Later in the morning, the president added this, quote, republicans are doing so well in early voting and at the polls, and now this bomb he sets off bomb in quotes this bomb stuff happens, and the momentum greatly slows. News not talking politics. Very unfortunate. What is going on. Republicans go out and vote. This afternoon officials including the attorney general and the fbi director briefed the media on todays arrest. At one point the fbi director added that the pipe bombs are not a hoax. Each device consisted of roughly six inches of pvc pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring, and what is known as energetic material, which is essentially potential explosives and material that give off heat and energy through a reaction to heat, shock, or friction. Though were still analyzing the devices in our laboratory, these are not hoax devices. With that lets bring in our leadoff panel on a friday night. While theres plenty of time to talk about the politics, first lets talk about this investigation and this lightning fast arrest. Jim kavanaugh is back with us a retired special agent in charge for the atf, the explosive experts at the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Malcolm nance a special ops homeland security, 35 years on the job working in Counter Terrorism and intelligence. And ariana berg a former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Jim, anytime youve been on ive listened carefully. Youve taught me over the years that every criminal eventually makes a mistake. We are thankful this criminal made apparently more than one. If theres a strange blessing to any of this, he left us with so much to go on. They had over a dozen pieces of hardware spread out in a lab to go over with a fine tooth comb, correct . Thats right. He was better at leaving evidence than he was at making bombs, and you know, looking at that van, i mean, im reminded of churchhills quote, a fanatic is a guy who cant stop talking and wont change the subject. You can just see inside the mind of this guy. Hes a fanatic about this topic, and he wanted to go after his targets. So yes, a treasuretrove of evidence, lots of fingerprints. Was it a fingerprint really that broke the case. They were able to get a latent print off the envelope, likely ran it through the system, got a hit on his arrest, dna off a couple of ied parts inside the envelope. Checked with fdle, the Florida State agents, got a pretty good match. Its not a total, its a pretty close match. Thats in the probable cause affidavit and also some of the misspellings. Of course he lived near the mailing center, and of course when you see his van, the motive, so they had a pretty good criminal complaint, some good initial charges. Theres going to be more. Theyre going to flush that all out, but, you know, theres going to be plenty of evidence. The question is did he have any help, brian . Was anybody else with him. Dna inside the bombs on ied parts. Hes integral to it, but was he totally alone. Malcolm nance were obviously celebrating good news here tonight, and as i said, a lightning fast investigation, a lightning fast arrest. What worries you further beyond this case . Well, first, for this suspect, youve really got to reevaluate your life choices when you wake up to the Fbi Hostage Rescue Team surrounding you ask bringing you in as a terrorist because thats what he is. And what we need to consider right now is as jim said, the key part of this investigation is did he act alone. Did he assemble all of these devices. Was he part of a team that assembled these devices . Most worrisome for me is you know, where is the bomb factory. Where did he actually assemble these devices . Is there an entire pile of them left unmailed, and were other devices mailed and are now inside the mail stream still en route to targets waiting to be sorted and waiting for postal inspectors to find them . This terrorist campaign is not over by any stretch of the imagination until we get those things answered. Counselor, arianna berg, i want to play for you an interview that took place tonight. This is the suspects former boss, a restaurant manager, brief part of a conversation she had on live tv tonight that opens a whole door to the kind of mind were talking about here. Well talk about it on the other side. He definitely beat to the beat of his own drum. He was antiguy, antiblack, anti ant antijewish. You name it. Everybody that really wasnt white and wasnt a white supremacist didnt belong in the world. Thats what he used to say to me all the time, but i really was shell shocked when i found out it was him. I really couldnt believe it because as far as an employee, he was on time. He was cordial. He was articulate. I never had any problems with him. There was no theft. My customers liked him, but it was just his political views that scared me. Was he violent . Not at all. There was no violence at all. I mean, he made it a point he knew i was a lesbian and a very proud lesbian, and he made it a point to tell me that, you know, god had made a mistake with me and that i should burn in held and along with my other black friends. Hed say that to you just straight to your face . Absolutely. Absolutely. So counselor, if i appointed you prosecutor of this case, i think youd probably put her on the stand, and i think youd probably make special arrangements to drive that van right into the courtroom or get the jury, all of them to go out on a field trip and see it in the parking lot. What else . Absolutely. That van is a roving play book for the crimes that sayoc was attempting to commit and did commit. All of that evidence is something that prosecutors and Law Enforcement are poring over and looking at to get inside the mind of sayoc. What was motivating . What was animating him behind these crimes . If we rook look at the complain which was the charging document that the Southern District of new york filed, youll notice that remarkably what is very not present in that complaint is about his political motivations, his ideologies, which are literally advertised right on his van, on his twitter account, and clearly in his statements to his former boss and other people that know him. But those are the kinds of things that potentially could be charged. There are crimes that would increase his maximum penalties to life imprisonment or more years than he has left alive. Those crimes absolutely look into those political motivations. He could be charged potentially down the road with attempted murder against a u. S. Official in retaliation for the performance of their duties or attempted murder against a former u. S. Official or a Family Member of a former u. S. Official, again, to intimidate or retaliate against them for their political ideologies. This is the clear definition of domestic terrorism. When someone does something in pursuit of a particular political, social, or religious agenda. And counselor, its being tried by your former shop, the Southern District of new york. Given that these devices went all over the place and he was arrested in florida, why the Southern District of new york as a jurisdiction . A lot of times for federal crimes you need an interstate commerce because the mail was used. Really that means that most any Federal District could charge it. The Southern District of new york is uniquely situated to deal with these types of cases of terrorism, bombings, things like that. The joint Terrorism Task force with the fbi is really second to none in pursuing these cases, and we have to remember that even though these packages were mailed from florida and the initial bombs were sent to new york targets, thats enough for new york to take the case. Jim, in your old job, you had to know the pieces of a bomb as well as you did, the makeup of the human mind and having said that, what about this guy, what we know about him so far, what he looks like. Hes rumored to have been supporting himself as a dancer for a time. Other people said a truckdriver. Whats familiar about this guy to you . Well, hes living in a van down by the river for years. Thank you chris farley wherever you are. Like malcolm said and this is the great intelligence mind that he has and where these Intelligence Officers and Law Enforcement and the government will be spinning up by the way, going forward, and malcolm can talk about that, but look, hes living in a van down by the river, yet he made 14 bombs. Those bombs have a lot of tape, wire, components, glass, explosive materials, you know, the timer has to be wired up. Youre attaching everything. Theres a place, brian, theres a place somewhere. We call it a bomb factory. In my experience its a kitchen, a basement, a garage, a closet. It could be the van, but likely its probably somewhere else, and he had acquired these materials maybe in moms condo, you know, the back closet of the condo. It could be in a strip club, and theres also a computer. Theres a computer and his iphone, and hes googling the addresses of all these targets. Look, brian, youve been in the News Business a long time. The other day i asked you joe bidens middle name i bet you couldnt tell me. I now know its robinette. And james clappers middle name is on that bomb. You just dont come up on those names living in the van at the river. You got to search that, and all those searches came from somewhere. Is it the computer at the strip club . Is it the computer at the local library . Is it the computer at his moms house . Somewhere hes doing a search. It may be on his phone. Hes looking this stuff up. Hes printing this stuff out. Weve got to find those locations. Is there another accomplice . I dont think we can really tell right now. He could have done it alone, but you know when you go to these rallies, i mean, theres a bonding with folks. Everybodys in there with a red hat. Everybodys charged up. Everybodys sort of getting all worked up for supporting the president and all this. You can make a connection even if you are a loner generally. You can make a connection, so could he have made a connection of a likeminded person . We dont know the answer, but the agents will ferret that out, and that will be a big answer going forward. Was he acting alone . Was he the bomb maker and the courier . Or was he a bomb maker with somebody else and maybe they both kocouriered them to the po office . Did we down play this . It felt in the moment hyperbolic to call this an assassination attempt basically on the Leadership Structure of the last government, but you start to add this up. Youve got two president s. Youve got a former Vice President , secretary of state, attorney general, first lady sitting member of congress. There they all are, and a billionaire for good measure, an actor, one of these devices went to cnn across town. Was this in your mind a fullon assassination attempt . Well, assassination is just one of the techniques that terrorists, you know, thats encompassed within terrorism. I immediately called it what it was, which was a terrorist mail bomb campaign. We dont know what the objectives are. At that time we didnt know whether these devices were real or not. We have to assume that theyre real and then work back and let the bomb teches carry out their work and establish whether theyre viable or not. When you see that large expanse of his target set, which by the way is in his head, theres no way to read that. Thats why i still think there are bombs out there. There are some prominent people who really should have been targeted early on. You dont know whats in the mind of the bomber. But this was a Broad Campaign to intimidate not just these individuals but the nation. You could arguably say 60 of the nation who see these people as their champions, so by targeting them, you intended to really go after a large portion of the population, which is the definition of terrorism. Three of the very best in the business, were fortunate to be able to ask the three of row to start our conversation, jim kavanaugh, malcolm nance, ar arianna berg. We move inevitably to the politics of the day. Steve schmidt is here to help us digest everything including what Trump Supporters had to say about the bomb even after the suspect was arrested. And the one record donald trump broke this month, the 11th hour back after this. Is looking good at booking. Com, we cant guarantee is youll good at that water jet thingy. But we can guarantee the best price on this hotel. Or any accommodation, from homes to yurts. Booking. Com booking. Yeah that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and Customer Service are critical to business success. Like the ones we teach here, every day. Of course, daniel. Fridge, weather. Clear skies and 75. Trash can, turn on the tv. My pleasure. Ice dispenser, find me a dog sitter. Okay. And make ice. Pizza delivered. Whats happened to my son . 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