The investigation into 10 pipe bombs sent to high-profile Democrats and critics of US President Donald Trump is focusing on leads in Florida, a federal law enforcement source said on Thursday while another source said investigators believe the devices' design came from the Internet.
All the suspicious packages were believed to have gone through the US postal system at some point, the source said. Many of the packages had the return address of the Florida office of US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The instructions for such explosive devices are widely available on websites and in propaganda distributed by militant groups such as ISIL and al-Qaeda, said the second law enforcement official and a former federal government bomb expert.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro on Thursday became the latest targets of the bombs, none of which exploded.
Postal workers load trucks with mail outside a post office which had been evacuated in Wilmington, Delaware, US, October 25, 2018. /Reuters Photo
The bombs have heightened what already was a contentious campaign season ahead of the November 6 elections in which Trump's Republicans will try to maintain majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives. The episode has also called attention to the harsh rhetoric Trump wields against his rivals.
Trump condemned the bombs but later blamed the media, his frequent foil, for much of the angry tone.
No one has claimed responsibility and the FBI urged the public to report any tips. The packages consisted of a manila envelope with a bubble-wrap interior containing “potentially destructive devices,” the FBI said. Each bore a computer-printed address label and six “Forever” postage stamps, the agency said.
Some of the packages sent to New York locations had envelopes of white powder in them, but FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney said at a briefing in New York that initial analysis showed it was not a biological threat.
The pipe bombs discovered on Wednesday were similar to the ones sent to Biden and De Niro, a federal official told Reuters. Authorities described the devices as crude while security experts said their goal may have been to create fear rather than to kill.