of two of these ieds. one that was being mailed to maxine waters, the congresswoman. and another one that was being mailed to barack obama, the former president, had his dna. so they were able to match it to records they already had. they also found a fingerprint in one of the ieds being sent to maxine waters. again, they were able to compare that to fingerprints that he had from his previous arrest record. so the fact that he had a wrrap sheet a mile long was extremely helpful. as soon as they found the fingerprint on the package sent to maxine waters, they apparently had their guy pretty quickly. it was not hard to find him. shimon, what have we learned about these improvised explosive devices, as christopher wray calls them? how were they made, and were they armed? yeah, so the fbi director explained at the press conference and also in the court documents, basically, the way they re described, they re six
several of individuals who were targeted by these ieds. then there s a twitter a tweet posting in which he says, hey cnn, bs con job, fraud puppets and blasts cnn. you see him standing with a big poster saying cnn sucks at one of the rallies. and then one that specifically attacks former president barack obama, is this the greatest fraud played on the american people, he says. and finally, another one on george soros, in which he goes after him and other various think tanks, political organizations like media matters, mainstream media, center for american progress, and makes all sorts of accusations. all these postings, these tweets, they re valuable evidence for law enforcement. valuable evidence, as one official i spoke with said. look, these are his words, this is his con fenfession. it s so important that it s listed here in the criminal complaint that was released today. the law enforcement official
they radicalized by things on the internet, violent, islamic terrorism. this guy radicalized by violent intentions with domestic political targets, acting on his own, at least that s what s assumed at this point. but parallels to the way lone wolves who do international terrorism hear a domestic terrorist who had a similar path. the fbi director, christopher wray, he made it clear, these were not hoax or fake devices. these were real ieds. no, these were real ieds. this is the big concern from the fbi. and that s why you see, even today. the fact that they were able to they found a device or package that was addressed to kamala harris, the senator, they immediately cleared the area. they evacuate people. they do the same thing for the package that is still being investigated in burlingame, california, that was addressed to tom steyer, the democratic fund-raiser, donor. they have to treat this extremely seriously, because as you heard from shimon, it s clear that there was enough
director, these about not hoax devices. yeah. he did not mince any words, christopher wray, the fbi director. ieds, improvised explosive devices, not a hoax. stand by, jim. i also want to bring in our crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz, and cnn law enforcement analyst, campbell. and our justice correspondent, evan perez. evan, what do we know about this guy s record? he s got a criminal record and he s been charged in the past with several crimes. right, exactly. he s been arrested at least nine times, most of those in florida, dating back 20 years in florida there, wolf. and one of his charges is bomb-related charge. i think it whe was threatening bomb a utility there in florida. so there was some history. and let me tell you. that was a key part of this. that was a huge part of why the fbi was able to solve this very quickly. because, as jim pointed out, there was a couple of pieces
plantation, florida. we can confirm that 13 ieds were sent to various individuals across the country. these are not hoax devices. reporter: sources say, investigators used his cell phone to track him. after dna evidence was found on some of the packages. in addition they uncovered a latent fingerprint from one of the envelopes containing an ied that had been sent to congresswoman maxine waters. reporter: one of the reasons authorities arrested him in a public place was because an address associated with him in florida might pose a danger to officers if there were explosives present. officials say that he was living with his parents, but they had kicked him out. and so was living out of his van. which authorities took into custody after he was arrested. the van covered in political decals, images of the president and vice president. one saying, cnn sucks. cnn sucks!