News coverage here in New York City now. Craig melvin at msnbc headquarters. The nation on high alert, on high alert over a domestic tryst terrorist whos been waging war through the u. S. Mail all week. Pete williams just a few moments ago reporting that a person has been taken into custody at this point, a person were told perhaps in his 50s taken into custody in florida for questioning in connection with the mail bombs that have been sent to prominent americans all over this country over the past few days. Details as to this persons connection right now, those Details Remain unclear. This coming as two more explosive devices were discovered today, a total of 12 devices have now been sent, 12 explosive devices. Today one package found at a new york postal facility on the west side of manhattan. That one was addressed to former director of national
intelligence James Clapper. The other intercepted in florida. That one was addressed to new jersey democrat cory booker. All of these devices have been sent to prominent democrats. All of them critics at one point or another of President Trump. The president so far only weighing in on twitter today about what he has called a quote, the bomb stuff. President trump will be speaking at an event later this hour. We will be watching, of course, for that. With me now to cover all of these late breaking developments, nbc newss Investigative Reporter tom winter. Kerry sanders is in opalocka, florida, at that aforementioned mail facility. This is plantation, florida. This is the scene, a live look you can see were told some fbi activity on the scene there in plantation, florida, trying to get a better sense of whats going on. Tom, do we know if this is where
that person was taken into custody . Not to put you on the spot. No problem at all. This fits the profile weve been told as far as a possible location. It appears to me and we cant control this helicopter, but it appears to me to say fbi on the back of those armored plates. The body armor that they have. If so, thats likely hrt, the Hostage Rescue Team of the fbi or the fbi local squad. So each Fbi Field Office has a s. W. A. T. Component, and then of course they have hrt which is the fbis National Program for making arrests on this. So at this point just taking a look at who were seeing there, it appears to me that this is these are fbi resources. It would make sense given the nature of what weve seen, a wide ranging 13 or im sorry, 12 packages. Im jumping ahead of myself because my colleague is learning of a potential other package theyre looking into in california at the moment, which
would bring this to 13, but thats still being looked at at the moment. Were told a short time ago that a male, perhaps in his 50s, was going to be somebody who they were looking at strongly and that this person was located in florida, but were waiting on more information, and i want to really underscore a point that Pete Williams made that this person has been taken in for questioning. So this is somebody that at this point has not been charged with sending these 12 devices. We can also report right now that the Department Of Justice is reporting a 2 30 News Conference. Federal officials will be giving us more information at 2 30 eastern, information regarding the person in custody. Word on that one coming down. I can tell you that if thats the case, then i think the person that has been taken into custody here is likely going to be the person thats going to be charged for this crime. They would not announce a Press Conference at 2 30 if it wasnt for if it wasnt to announce arrests. They dont do Press Conferences at the Department Of Justice to announce people being taken in for questioning. This certainly you see an nypd officer there on the sidewalk. I would say at this point this is likely the person they were looking for. Believed to be a male in his 50s. Were still waiting on some sort of additional confirmation on that. This is somebody who theyve been circling for at least the past several hours or so. This is somebody who we were told that this was occurring in florida. We didnt have a specific location, and even if we did, we wouldnt have said it. I think at this point given the amount of evidence that theyve been able to gather and given the Law Enforcements capabilities of being able to being able to investigate these type of things, weve even had some indication yesterday that a video cam was underway sorry about that. If youve got to take that, you take that. Thats okay. Thats okay. We were told that a video canvas was underway yesterday at some point looking for potential images of a suspect. This all fits with the time line and the information that we received, but obviously were going it need to get more details. We had some preliminary indications while this person may be taken into custody, obviously wherever they were going to be that were doing this, that the case is going to be brought here possibly in new york. So we need to get some confirmation of that as well. Those are things that are up in the air and fluid, and i am going to get back to the phones here, craig. Get back to the phones. When you have new information, do come back to me. Lets get Clint Van Zandt on standby as well. We can tell you that the Attorney General Jeff Sessions is also at the white house right now. This is per our white house crew there in washington, d. C. It looks like the Attorney General just arrived at 1,600 pennsylvania avenue. Left side of your screen, plantation, florida, we should,
again, preface this by saying we do not know definitively at this point whether there is a direct connection between what youre seeing on the left side of your screen and the 12 pipe bombs that have been sent to prominent democrats over the past, but our Investigative Unit believes strongly that there is a correlation between this heavy fbi presence, local police, nypd police there, excuse me, nypd on the scene as well. Plantation police sending out a notice, this is plantation, florida, the local police sending out a notice to local residents about the Police Activity on state road telling folks to avoid the area both northbound and southbound lanes are closed encouraging folks to seek some or the of alternate route. The Justice Department announcing a short time ago that roughly three and a half hours from now they are going to be holding a News Conference to brief all of us on this person
who has been taken in for questioning. Again, thats the language that were using right now. A man were told in his 50s taken into custody at this point for questioning. So thats the scene on the left side of your screen there, plantation, florida. On the right side of your screen, that was earlier here in New York City. West side of manhattan, and that is where we find rehema alice. Bring us up to speed on the scene there outside that postal facility, if you can. Reporter craig, what i want you to take a look at is tim, can you swing your camera over . What you see right now, these are postal workers from that post office were talking about. Theyve now been allowed to return to their stations, if you will. This is a sign of getting back to normal here in new york. Youre going to see some traffic coming down the street in just a few moments. Police have given the all clear if you will in this area. So 52nd and 8th avenue is about to be reopened. There was a brief Press Conference just a few moments ago. I call it a Press Conference. They made a statement, basically. Took no questions. Let me interrupt you, im sorry. Standby for me if you can, justice correspondent Pete Williams is standing by with new information. What do we have . Craig, we had said a moment ago that a person was detained in custody for questioning. We can rack that up considerably. What were told now is a person has been arrested in connection with a string of Package Bombs, and will face charges in connection with the bombing. Im not sure exactly what the charges will be. I dont know if the conclusion is that this is the only person involved, but i am told now that a person has been arrested and will be charged in connection with the bombing. We know that there will be an announcement at the Justice Department later this afternoon, and my expectation was if we got to that stage of making an announcement, it would be that they have arrested someone that they think is actively involved
in these bombings. So i think we can conclude, based on what weve been told by several federal officials, that they have made an arrest in florida of a man that they will charge in connection with these this string of Package Bombs, and that well hear more about it and details about it this afternoon at 2 30 from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other authorities in new york who were involved, so actively in this investigation. This is the break they were hoping for, and theyve been leading up to this. Weve known a lot of details that we havent reported because we didnt want to jeopardize the investigation about a number of people in florida that they were focused on, talking to, watching very carefully, but lets just step back here for a second because were going to become involved in reporting all these details when they come out. This is a good time to pause and just think about how rapidly this investigation has moved. True. Now, grant it, you had a huge
advantage in this Bombing Investigation in that virtual will you all of tly all of the devices youre seeing in this graphic with the exception of the one to george soros, which police didnt know what they were dealing with at that point, all those devices, they had that huge trove of evidence from those devices, and they also have the fact that these were repeatedly sent, apparently, from florida, from the same they went through the same Mail Distribution Center it would appear. Thats all great investigative detail, but still to have an arrest this quickly is really quite stunning and its just an enormous success for Law Enforcement, although obviously we have to do all the usual kaf gna caveats that we dont know what these charges will be. Its merely the chargiing at ths
point, but its an important Turning Point in this investigation. Stand by, ive got a few followups. Tom winter here with me as well. Tom, i understand you have some new information. Pete and i have been talking about this for the last half hour. Pete, i have confirmed multiple senior federal Law Enforcement officials to nbc news. It is a male in his 50s that has been taken into custody here in regards to this. Just a little bit of a clarification as far as or not a clarification, but an update as far as who may be behind this. A male in his 50s, as pete so clearly said taken into custody and is expected to be facing some federal charges that well hear about in a little bit. Thats something thats still to come. Just little bit more detail on the suspect. Were awaiting a name on that suspect. We do not have it yet. But well hopefully get that for you here shortly. Do we know if this is someone who was known previously to Law Enforcement . Im not quite ready to discuss that. Theres a little bit of confusion about that point. This may be a person, though,
that is that did spend time in the New York State or New York City area previously. Okay. That is a little bit of Additional Information that i can provide. Its my understanding as of an hour ago, this is a person who is originally from New York State or from New York City, but im waiting to get some more information, and obviously this is fluid, and we dont have the persons name yet so we need to kind of check out all this information. Pete, the scene here in plantation, florida, we continue to watch these federal officials, local police as well. We saw some members of the nypd on the scene. It would appear as if based on what weve been looking at courtesy of this local news chopper that this is a situation that is under control. This does not appear to be some sort of active situation, pete. Do we know if this man whos in his 50s was taken into custody without incident, or is that something we dont know at this point . No, we dont know any of those details at this point. This is someone that they focused on, i think, just this morning because as of last night, it did not seem to many federal officials that we talked to that anything thered be any significant break in the case for the next 24 hours. Thats as of last night. And then of course two things happened today, one is the discovery of these two additional devices, one at the opalocka Sorting Center and the other in new york at a midtown mail facility, but they just got much more interested very quickly in this person in florida, and we started to get indications that things were moving in that direction several hours ago, and now obviously theyve moved. Pete, again, i want to just let our viewers know and our listeners on sirius satellite radio, we dont control this camera, this helicopter camera, but at one point it did seem as
if they were focusing on this white van. And we see a tow truck that appears to be getting in position to try and tow this van. The van, were looking at it just like you are at home from a distance. It would appear to be a van thats got lots of Bumper Stickers all over it. Again, it looks like at this point they are going to be towing this van away. Were keeping a close eye on that. Pete, lets talk about these bombs if we can for just a moment here. Were talking about 12 bombs. These pipe bombs made from pvc pipe. They contain a digital timer according to our reporting. There is powder in these bombs, xrays showing there was likely some type of Shrapnel Inside as well. What might investigators be able to determine from these bombs . What might we learn about the bomber based on these bombs . Well, so now that theres an arrest, this changes the way the
investigations going to work. I mean, obviously the and its hard to read these Bumper Stickers. I agree, they are kind of interest, but this is clearly something that the authorities want to haul away because they want to check it for possible evidence. And lets just think about for a moment why would a Bombing Investigation be interest instead a vehicle . Well, for the simple reason that you have to get the bombs somehow to the post office, and if theyre going to be carried in a vehicle, then potentially a vehicle could contain evidence that would be important to that so thats one reason why. And of course in a case like this, youre going to want to search everything connected to anyone whos a suspect. So that would be why theyd be interested in the vehicle. And they might want to know whether theyre you know, its possible that additional they were this person was preparing to send additional bombs, if that is the person responsible. But they will now, if they have
a suspect, they can try to go back and knowing what theyre looking for, try to see if they find specific things on those packages as they continue to go through them at the fbi lab. That is a very Pain Staking Process because its all photographed. Its all documented as they take those devices bit by bit apart looking for fingerprints, looking for any kind of fiber evidence that would connect someone to the devices. And i suspect that when we at 2 30 were going to find out what the Critical Evidence was, whether, in fact, it was something off the devices. I mean, to get an arrest you have to have probable cause. You have to get an arrest warrant. That has been done here. You have to go to a judge and say this is the evidence we have, and thats why you should give us a warrant to arrest someone. So they obviously have evidence tieing this person, they believe, to the bombings, and were going to find out at 2 30, i think. Get a pretty good idea of what that evidence was. And were also going to hear from President Trump here at 11 45. The president expected to speak at 11 45. Lets keep this up, guys. Were getting some new information on this white van. According to our nbc affiliate there in miami, this is wtvj, according to our affiliate, that white van, the windows on what theyre describing as the suspects truck. The windows are completely covered with, again, from wtvj covered with pictures of trump, the president ial seal, et cetera, and you can see a u. S. Postal inspector there taking a very close look at the van, presumably some other investigators there on the right also taking a very close look at this van. And tom, i know that youve got some additional reporting on this vehicle as well . Some of the traffic in Law Enforcement circles confirming what you have just said there, craig, that theres its
being described to me as some right wing paraphernalia and stickers on this van, and whether or not this is specifically the suspects and we want to use caution. I know petes utilized a lot of caution here in his reporting bau th but that the white van, we are being told that this is in some way connected to it, if not the suspects van. We dont have it confirmed that this is exactly his truck, but at this point it appears that this is definitely connected to the case. I want to point out something that we mentioned earlier, pete, which is that im sorry, craig, which is that not only do we have the fbi there, we can see them clear as day. And theyre covering the van now. And theyre covering the van now, which is somewhat typical so people dont get closer messages of the van before theyve had a chance to kind of break this down as it is driven away from there and presumably in front of tv cameras that are now swarming this location, but we also saw an nypd police
jacket thats there. So that kind of further strengthens this is directly tied to everything weve seen here over the last couple of days and things weve been talking about. To bring you up to speed here, in the past roughly 20 minutes or so, we have learned that federal Law Enforcement agents have arrested a man in his 50s in connection to these packages, these 12 packages that have been sent to various political media and celebrity figures who have been critical of President Trump over the past several days. The latest one discovered friday morning. That one addressed to former u. S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and also new jersey senator cory booker. That was just a couple of hours ago within the past 15 minutes we have seen Law Enforcement agents cover this white van with a blue tarp. Weve watched that unfold here over the past few moments. Our affiliate on the ground there reporting that this van
belongs to the suspect. We dont have that confirmed here at the network just yet, but thats coming from wtvj. The Department Of Justice announcing 2 30 News Conference. We expect to learn lots more roughly three hours from now. And the president , President Trump expected to speak roughly 25 minutes from now, 11 45, the president expected to speak in an unrelated event. Hard to believe that the president wont be talking about what we have been watching unfold here over the past 20 minutes or so. We should note, though, we heard from the president roughly 25, maybe 30 minutes ago via twitter refer to all of this as quote, bomb stuff, and using it to a certain extent to encourage republicans to get out there for the midterms. Tom and pete, im going to come back to you in a moment, but i want to get to Chuck Rosenberg. Heres a former u. S. Attorney, fbi senior official. Chuck joins me now. What can we expect to hear from officials in this 2 30 News Conference . Not all that much, craig. Theyre going to be cautious. Theyre going to be careful. Pete williams earlier described the fact that to arrest somebody you need to get a warrant from a federal judge predicated on probable cause. I imagine at some point that will be made public, the warrant and the affidavit that supports it, but officials in describing this case will do a couple of things. One, theyll stay within the four corners of that document. Theyre not going to give you anything other than whats in that probable cause affidavit and warrant. Second, they will reiterate, as we always do as prosecutors, that whoever is in custody is presumed innocent. They probably will not take very many questions, and theyre going to be careful to make sure that this individuals rights are safeguarded. What will happen next for the person in custody is that he and apparently its a he will
be brought before a federal judge for what we call an initial appearance. At some point if they have the right person, and i presume they do, federal prosecutors will present the case to a grand jury for an indictment. As were having this conversation, we continue to watch this white van covered in a blue tarp now. This has actually all happened fairly quickly over the past five, ten minutes. Law enforcement officials appear to be working to secure that tarp to the van. Our local affiliate there, Wtvj Reporting that this van belongs to the suspect, also reporting that the van is covered in Bumper Stickers, covered in trump paraphernalia, if you will, including stickers of the president ial seal. Again, it would appear as if this van is now going to be towed away and become a part of this investigation. Pete williams, our justice correspondent watching all of
this unfold as well. Pete, anything at this point any new information . A couple of things. One is when the charges are filed, i assume that they will prosecute this case in new york out of the Southern District of new york because thats where post of the bombs were found. Most of them, you recall, the one to Hillary Clinton was in New York State, although not necessarily the Southern District. Im not sure about that. But several found in New York City, so that would seem to be the locus. Theyre experienced in doing these kind of cases, so my expectation is its got to be filed somewhere. It will probably be filed in new york. Secondly, one question here, of course, is that were other people involved . That is always a question in these cases. Its fair to say that the assumption that we had heard of
earlier was that they were fairly confidence that this person, that they were going to arrest, was responsible for these bombings, but, you know, they cant rule out that other people may have been involved, although we dont get any indications of that right now. Involved or perhaps even knew of yeah, involved or aware and of course, whenever you have Something Like this, you want to know if a person got any help, was that somebody who was unaware of what they were helping him do, or was that somebody that was helping him. We have no indication that anybody else, that their eyes are on anyone else at this point, although they would always say in the early stage of the investigation they cant rule anything out. Pete, in cases like this and unfortunately we have watched so many of these unfold over the past few years, one of the first orders of business appears to be to begin scouring the suspects social media footprint. Do we know if investigators have
been able to glean anything from that just yet . No, but you can be sure theyve done that. You can be sure that before they made this arrest theyve done a good deal of investigating because they dont want to arrest the wrong person. Its a waste of resources. Its unfair to the person, and it diverts a lot of attention away from what they should be doing. Before they make an arrest, you can be sure thats one thing. They will at least have taken a cursory look at. They may not have looked at it in all detail. One thing they cant do until they make an arrest is seize the persons communications devices. They can check phone company records. They can check Internet Company records, they can look at business records, travel records, credit card receipts, that kind of thing, you know, see if a person bought gasoline at places near the post office, all that sort of stuff, but the
real benefit of in criminal cases that weve seen before of communications usually comes from seizing the devices, being able to look at the cell phone, look at the Laptop Computers or the personal computers and do a much more detailed check that way. So probably very little has been learned from that, although im sure theyve made some effort. Well, we while weve bee having this conversation, weve been watching dozens of fbi agents work to secure this white van in plantation, florida. Before they covered it in that blue tarp, we were able to get a pretty good look at the van, and we could tell that it was covered in Bumper Stickers, other stickers as well. We could not see precisely what those stickers were, but our eyes on the ground, our reporters on the ground there reported with wtvj telling us that the windows on the suspects truck are quote, completely covered with pictures
of trump, the president ial seal, et cetera. So left side of your screen, that is thats whats happening right now. Thats the live look. Right side of your screen was that van before it was covered roughly 15 or 20 minutes ago. Well keep that up for a little bit. If you look closely, you can make out, perhaps, some of the Bumper Stickers. Weve got one of the producers from wtvj on the phone right now. She is in plantation, florida. Melissa, are you with me . Yes, im with you. Good morning. Were you able to get a good look at this van . Were you able to make out some of the Bumper Stickers and other stickers that appear to be covering it . You know, i honestly wasnt. We were right across the street trying to set up a live shot, trying to get some video, and there were a bunch of fbi, you know, vehicles and Plantation Police vehicles kind of blocking it from directly across the street, and then we actually had
an agent come over to us and tell us we had to back up. So now were on the north side of the area. The intersection of 441 and southwest 6th street, and from where im standing now i can see the van wrapped in that blue tarp, but from here im probably two blocks away, i could not see the specific images in the windows that youre talking about, although i can see the blue tarp over the van right now. But this whole stretch of 441 just completely closed down as you can see from the other video that weve been sharing with the viewers. From where were standing, police are redirecting traffic around the area. We know that this is plantation plaza, specifically right here off of 441, and we have spoke with a number of people who work in that plaza and about 30 minutes ago, they were all evacuated from their businesses. They didnt know why, but the fbi came in and evacuated the plaza. So a lot of people who work in there, who are headed to doctors appointments, theyre on the fringe now of this
perimeter trying to figure out exactly whats going on. Melissa, we get the sense from this Vantage Point that this is scene that is well under control, if you will, that investigators, Law Enforcement officials standing around right now concerned with this white van. This does not appear to be some sort of active situation. They dont appear this does not appear to be a suspect thats barricaded himself in a building or anything like that. Do you get the sense there on the ground as well that this is a scene that is very much in control . I agree with you. When we first arrived here, it looks like police and fbi have it completely under control. Theyve had the stretch of 441 closed off for quite some time now, so it appears that they have who theyre looking for, that now theyre starting their Investigation Phase here at this plaza. Theyve been able to get people out of harms way, if there was any risk of that at any time. So right now it really looks like theyre just kind of starting their methodical process of doing their investigation. When i asked one of the fbi agents, is this tied to the suspicious packages, you know, incident that has been going on now for a number of days, he kind of smiled at me. He couldnt officially confirm because typically fbi agents cant right there on the scene like that, but he did tell me i wouldnt go anywhere. Youre going to want to stay here. This is a big deal thats happening right now. We did kind of get a sense from them that they seemed to be calm and handling the scene because as you said, this is not like an active scene that anybodys in any kind of danger or that theyre looking for any suspects at this point. What weve done on the right side of your screen for folks who might be watching at home and for folks who are listening, do my best to describe it for you. Left side of your screen, thats a live look at whats happening there in plantation, florida. By the way, plantation, florida, this is a city in broward
county. Its less than ten miles away from fort lauderdale. You continue to see this white van. Were told this is a van that belongs to the suspect, this man in his 50s has been arrested in connection to the dozen bombs that were mailed to prominent democrats over the past five days. The right side of your screen we have frozen an image from the van. You can see stickers that are on the left side of the skrvan. Were told that theres stickers on the back as well. I am not going to try and decipher precisely whats on these stickers, whats on these butch Bumper Stickers. Based on where im sitting theres an elephant and there also appears to be a picture of the president of the united states, donald trump. Those are the only two stickers i can make out. We are scheduled to hear from the president roughly 15 minutes
from now. The president at a Preplanned Event, its called a young black leadership summit. The president expected to be there. Secretary ben carson, general john kelly, the chief of staff, Jared Kushner and a number of other senior ranking white house officials. It is hard to believe that the president wont talk about had we are seeing unfold and take some questions from reporters about this. Tom winter just got off the phone and typically when tom gets off the phone that means we have some new information. Is that the case this time . That is correct. Ive made a couple of calls here in the last few minutes. One of the things i can tell you from a senior u. S. Law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the matter, the case is going to be we should get a criminal complaint from the Southern District of new york, meaning hes going to be prosecuted by federal prosecutors here in manhattan. So we should get that. We may get that before the
presser. Its a little unclear to me what the timing of thats going to be. That will contain the persons name. It will also contain tloat leas preliminary set of charges here. To kind of now take what pete had been explaining to us to the next level, what will happen here is they will charge him with the complaint. There will be an fbi affidavit that will lay out at least some of the evidence that theyve gathered against this particular individual, lay out at least a specific charge against this individual, and then at that point they have the ability to arrest him. Obviously thats occurred. They have the ability to hold him, and then at some point there will be a hearing or an appearance, i should say, in florida. Then that person will likely be brought to new york. And then there will be a grand jury indictment, typically this is what happens. Typically, a grand jury will then hear the evidence, and at that point theyll have the ability to add additional charges to that grand jury indictment that the grand jury will vote on and say, yes, we agree that, you know, the
evidence that weve heard meets a certain criteria and that weve heard it to support these charges. At that point an indictment will be filed. Thats perhaps several days away. What we do know is we will get some details today from the fbi affidavit as far as what they were able to do to link this person to the specific act and to the specific crime, and then from there well get a little bit more details perhaps as to how he did it and some of the information about the bombs. It just depends how fluid this was this morning, the level of detail that were going to see in that criminal complaint. But we are told that it will be unsealed and, again, hopefully well have it before that 2 30 briefing to be able to provide you at least a decent look under the covers, so to speak, of this investigation. Let me go back to Pete Williams in just a moment here. First i want to bring in bill bratton, nbc news senior Law Enforcement and Counter Terrorism analyst. He joins me now on the phone, i believe. Commissioner, we have watched all of this unfold here, and pete noted this a few minutes ago, are you at all surprised by the speed with which investigators have been able to make an arrest . Happily surprised. The speed considering the come Ple Comeplexty of this case is no indication, certainly as recently as two hours ago that they were moving in on somebody. First off, its great news if in fact, this is the individual that they obviously was shipping those devices. Watching it unfold as to the circumstances, et cetera, but i am this is really great that this has come to closure so quickly. It put a lot of peoples mind at
rest. Also just how many of these devices might be floating around out there. Was there a total of 12 or did he actually mail more . Commissioner the speed with which all of this was done, is that because there was just so much evidence that this guy allegedly left behind . I think a combination of things. The concerted effort on a massive scale between fbi, local, police resources, the joint Terrorism Task force, which over the years is really extraordinarily sophisticated, watching the stream there. You notice several of the jackets on the Police Officials that are there, i see nypd gray jacket indicating nypd actually has somebody on the scene there already, so obviously thats reflective of they are cooperating seamlessly. Not one agency is trying to take all the credit for this. This was a joint effort reflected in the fact you have sheriffs personnel, fbi personnel, nypd personnel, and the fact that the nypd person is there is reflective of what the nypd has built up over the last 16, 17 years since 9 11, having offices able to move very quickly anywhere in the world when these things are developing. So great news and obviously great collaboration between the various Law Enforcement agencies and possibly the public. It will be interesting as to whether this was a tip from somebody that maybe knew this guy, concerned about him, and maybe talked to him. Its going to be fascinating to watch it unfold. Commissioner, we do not have word of a motive, obviously. Its very early. We dont have a name confirmed to nbc news just yet, but according to our eyes and ears on the ground there in
plantation, florida, the windows of this white van, the windows on the suspects van are completely covered with pictures of President Trump. The president ial seal, et cetera. What, if anything, should we take away from that . The investigation Going Forward as to the motivation that would give the appearance that this individual was a supporter of the president and that anybody that covers their vehicle with stickers and pictures, that basically its going over the top. And i can guarantee that just watching the number of people Walking Around that vehicle taking pictures before they put the top on it, looking at it from a helicopters from several thousand feet in the air, i think you can anticipate that some of those photos will be out there very quickly in terms of what is on the side of that vehicle. Commissioner bill bratton, thanks as always. Oh, ive been told that Pete Williams is on the phone, so well stand by before we go to pete, but again, we are waiting to hear from President Trump. We expect that we will hear from the president roughly seven, eight minutes from now. Theres a Preplanned Event thats expected to start at huffi roughly 11 45 eastern. Lets talk about what we know right now, and then well perhaps talk about what we dont know, the questions that are still outstanding. A man in his 50s has been arrested in connection with the dozen mail bombs. This man is expected to be charged. Tu at this point we do not know with what specifically. We expect to learn more about that at a News Conference thats going to happen at 2 30. The Department Of Justice set to update us at that point. Two new packages were found this morning. One of those packages addressed to the former director of National Intelligence, james
clapper. The other addressed to new jersey democrat senator cory book booker. Pete, as we wait to hear from President Trump, and youve been on the phone working your sources, do we have any new information right now . Sorry, craig, youre coming to me . Yes, yes. Okay. Yes, so what were told is the reason that this arrest is happening here in this parking lot is that its a parking lot of a car repair or car parts store and that the person they arrested was arrested previously at that location. The supposition was hes an employee there. I dont know that for a fact, but thats where the arrest was made, at that location. Whether thats his workplace or whether they just discovered that thats where he would be and made the arrest there, we are waiting to determine. But he was previously arrested and then his van taken away as you see, and then other evidence being gathered there. This is plantation, florida. This is in Broward County, about ten miles southwest of fort lauderdale. Not to jump the gun here, pete, and again, i know well probably learn more at this News Conference, this Department Of Justice News Conference, but do we know any more right now about this man who was arrested in his 50s . Not that weve confirmed. Weve heard a lot of things, but im going to wait until weve confirmed more information about whether, in fact, for example, did he have a criminal record . What was it that led them to him . Weve heard lots of different possibilities. Until weve confirmed them, were going to stay away from that. Okay. Ill let you get back on the phone. Tom winter. Yeah, so appears to be some solidifying information to petes point, theres certain things were working on. We want to make sure we get it right. Were going to keep asking questions. Definitely appears to be the age now solidifying a little bit that the person is 56 years old, that hes believed to be a white male. Thats some of the indications were getting. Craig, youve been showing an image of the suspects van here and weve shown some other images kind of locked in on that. Im told right wing propaganda or paraphernalia is the way that its been described to me. Youre looking at it on the right side full screen here. Some of the things that have been found on this persons truck. Were just still in the process of getting some details about this persons background, where he may have lived before. Again, the age is solidifying little bit that its a person believed to be 56 and may, in fact, be a white male. Well continue to do some reporting. I wanted to add to that. Were still waiting on getting some Court Paperwork which will not only confirm the name but give us some more details on what else is going on. The other thing i want to remind you of, its been moving so quickly. My colleague Andrew Blankstein is looking into reports out of
sma sacramento, california that authorities are investigating a potential other suspicious package that may have been addressed to senator kamala harris. At this point we do not know whether that is connected to what weve been covering for the last few days. Weve obviously had a number of these over the past few days, so theyre taking a look at it. Thats not definitive, but thats something we believe is ongoing. President trump going to be speaking shortly there in the east room of the white house. He tweeted moments ago, that hes going to be speaking at this young black leadership summit in 15 minutes where he will be addressing the investigation into the bomb packages. Our Geoff Bennett is on duty for us there in the briefing room. Jeff, so we know that the president is going to be talking about it here at the beginning of this summit. We dont know precisely what he is going to say. Walk us through what the president has said so far about these bombs and about this
investigation. Reporter well, so far this morning, craig, weve heard from the president talking about illegal immigration. Hes also talked about twitters algorithm which he suggested has cost him some followers and then he referred to this quote, bomb stuff, the president suggesting that its killing the gop messaging 11 days out from the midterms. The president so far focused more on the political cost than the human cost. But look, he sent those tweets before we understand he was officially briefed by the dhs, by the fbi, by his own chief of staff. Well have to see if that official briefing will color what he says in this gathering about 10 or 15 minutes from now. Again, if the president speaks from scripted remarks, we can certainly expect a message more in keeping with the conventions of the presidency. But so often its his unscripted remarks that are more illustrative i want to describe the scene
here for folks that are watching. This is that van that we watched get covered with that blue tarp. That van now being towed away, presumably, according to our reporters on the ground there, this van belongs to the suspect. It is now a part of the investigation. There also appears to be something taepd to the back of that van. I cant make out precisely what that is, but again, that van now being taken away and investigators will no doubt be combing through the interior portion of that van. Weve been showing you pictures of the exterior as well. Reports that the windows we saw the windows covered with stickers. Folks on the ground telling us that those stickers are pictures of trump, the president ial seal, et cetera, et cetera. Well learn of course a little bit more about that over the next few minutes and hours as well. Geoff, i interrupted you. Go ahead again, sorry. I was just making the point that if the president speaks from scripted remarks as he so
often does in these sort of official events he will probably Say Something we would expect a president to say at a moment of national peril. Its so often the things he says off the cuff, the things he tweets are far many instructive and ill lus traytive. The man behind this is undeniably a domestic terrorist r attempti , attempting to use the u. S. Postal service to send pipe bombs to critics of the administration, all of them democrats or members of the media or philanthropists who associate themselves with progressive causes. It will be very interesting to hear the kind of language that the president uses and, geoff, are we getting any indication that the president is going to be taking questions from reporters . No, we dont expect him to take questions from reporters, in part because the room just isnt set up for it. We saw Sarah Sanders speak to this yesterday. She said that President Trump is no more responsible for what someone might do in his own name than Bernie Sanders was responsible for the man who decided to shoot up that congressional Baseball Practice some months ago, so the white house has not spoken directly at all to the fact that this apparent suspect has been taken into custody. Theyve already sort of messaged out, telegraphed what their message might be on that issue, craig. Again, were watching the scene play out in plantation, florida, that white van, the van reportedly belonging to the suspect, this 56yearold man who has been arrested who is going to be charged in connection to the bomb probe, this 56yearold man, we dont note precisely what he is going to be charged with. Were told he is going to be charged. Were also told well be learning lots more at this 2 30
News Conference at the Department Of Justice. This van now being towed away. It is part of the investigation, towed away under, as you can see, quite the escort there in plantation, florida. We are not precisely sure where this van is going to be going. Lets many bring in Chuck Rosenberg once again, i lost chuck. Excuse me, Clint Van Zandt, former fbi profiler. Clint part of the team that brought Ted Kaczynski to justice, that was a roughly 20year invest. And here we have an investigation that if reports are to be believed could very well be wrapped up in five days . Yeah, and i think what we had, craig, was this evidencerich environment that the fbi and other federal, state, and local agencies had. There was just too many clues, too much evidence not to find this. Im hearing that perhaps the individual was identified either
sometime yesterday or early this morning, that they were able to track him based upon his cell phone, and again, having made arrests in situations like that, youd like to get the individual separated from his vehicle so he couldnt get ahold of any weapons, any explosive devices or anything else and be it fbi, or hrt, whoever made this arrest, this would have been a whole other plan they developed. Once they had their suspect, once they tracked him, they knew what he looked like, all they had to do is get him in a very safe environment, arrest him, and now the wheels of justice, like they always do, will start to turn. And as much as this has been a high profile case for us, for investigators, for prosecutors youve got to cross the ts, dot the is, we dont want to do anything that could hurt this case. As Pete Williams suggests go get a Search Warrant for the
vehicle, for his house, for his cell phone, for his laptop. Were told the individual perhaps has a criminal history. He has some relationship to new york. This at this point, craig, is high profile a case as hard to put together at that point. There will be linking physical evidence that will be photographed, and videos and dna and so much physical evidence that will link this individual to this offense that well be able to shut it down as far as the investigation fairly quickly. The questions, is there anybody else involved . We still have to find that the out. Are there any bombs still in the mail system . We need to know that, and so there is a lot of questions to be answered, but the bottom line is authorities appear to have the subject. We were just showing you a picture, and thank you, and we maym come back to you, clint, so dont go too far, and we were showing you, and if we can cut back it to, i can set the scene
at the white house. This is the east room where we were expecting to hear from President Trump at 11 45 roughly and the president tweet iing a short time ago that he is going to be speaking at 15 minutes which is the start time somewhere around noon, but President Trump there for a Preplanned Event, and this is the young black leadership summit there in the east room, and President Trump tweeting a short time ago that he is going to be addressing the investigati investigation, and addressing the arrests, and again, this is a man in his 50s who has been a arrested there in florida and arrested we are told in plantation city florida, and this is broward, county, and we are just watching that white van believed to be the van belonging to the the suspect, and this is the scene earlier as Law Enforcement surrounded that van in the parking lot where reportedly the suspect worked. We can tell you that the according to the reporters and the protusers on the ground there, according to them, this is a van that was decked out, if
you will, with pictures of President Trump. And the president ial seal and some other the Bumper Stickers as well. The Law Enforcement officials wasting no time draping the van with a blue tarp, and you can see the van moving down the interstate in Broward County heading to the secure location where investigators can pour over not only what is on the outside of the van, but inside as well. Mimi rocha, and i am told that she is also with me. Mimi, are you there . Yes. And mimi rocah is a former federal prosecutor as well. And in terms of how the investigators are going to put together a case like this, and walk us through what that process looks like and i apologize in advance if i have to cut you off if the President Trump walks into the east room. I will understand. And so at this point, it is important to note that there is a complaint that has been filed and a complaint is a sort of the preliminary way of charging someone when you want to get someone in custody quickly, which for obvious reasons, they would want to do here, and whatever charges they have in the complaint, and those may not end up being all of the charges, and we may, and we dont know, and there is a time when this person about ten days down road likely is going to be indicted, and so we could see further charges at that point, and this is likely, you know, a couple of the strongest charges that they have at the moment just to get this person, obviously, off of t the street, and into custody, and so people can breathe more easily, and there is a Treasure Trove of evidence here, and so first of all above all else, and hopefully the president will say this, we really need to commend the Law Enforcement jttf which is made up of fbi and local
agencies who have been on the ground and working completely around the clock i am sure to go through the evidence as quickly as possible and get a suspect into custody, because that is the goal when you have a threat to life like this. And so there is now going to be some going back over the evidence in more detail i am sure. They want to make sure that they have a charge, and they have probable cause to hold someone and detain them because of the threat to life, and once you have that person in custody, then you can go back to in more detail over the evidence that you have already gathered or are gathering like the cell phone evidence, cell site locations, and Text Messages and electronic evidence and all of the evidence that was sent to the lab, the dna and the forensics, and go through it to try to strengthen
your case, and this is important to see if other people were perhaps involved. We know that there is one person in custody so far, and that person, you know, could be the main person or could be an accomplice, and we dont know that yet. But if it is the main person, the main target, doing this, there could be other accomplices out there, and those are important things to watch for over to the next 24 hours or so. Mimi, thank you. As we continue the watch this white van make its way down the interstate there in plantation, florida, and Kerry Sanders is on the ground for us there. Kerry, and there is something attached to the back of this van, and im not sure if you have gotten a better look at it than the i am getting here from the helicopter. Can you make out what is on the back of it . Well, right here on the state road 7, us 41, and right before it went on to the what is the turnpike, and so we got a glimpse of it. It looked like on the back, it was probably like a bicycle or
maybe a scooter or something that someone who needs to get around if the they are slightly disabled, and it is hard to tell, because it had some black over it, but that is what it appears to be. And you can tell by the Traffic Whizzing by here in the last minute and a half, they decided to reopen the road, and the van is cleared, and the person as we know is in custody, and the authorities are moving forward with what appears to be a very Significant Development in this ongoing case. It is unclear whether this is a Single Person or whether this is somebody who may be connected to others, and all sorts of things that we will get answer s s to later this a afternoon when we hear from the Department Of Justice. But at this point, very swift work quite frankly by the authorities to close in on what may be the person responsible for sending these packages through the mail and Package Bombs quite frankly that while none exploded were all intended, it appears according to the
authorities. Craig. Plantation, florida, and again, this is Broward County. Kerry sanders there for us. And let see do i have do we have pete . Do i have pete . I dont have pete. And lets see if we can get tom winter back as well for a few moments here. And looks like some new information. And Clint Van Zandt is still with me. Clint, in terms of, and again, we dont want to get too far ahead of the investigation obviously, and we learn some more at 2 30, but based on what we have been able to confirm, and based on these sticker rs that are reportedly on this white van, what do you make of the kind of of suspect that we are dealing with here . Again, we are always looking for the motivation, and of course, we dont need motivation to charge someone with a crime, but we are always interested in it. You know the old phrase, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, and from the stickers
that are on the side of this, it appears that the clint, sorry, but i am sorry we have a name here. And tom winter, what can you tell us . Craig, our understanding is that a person named see cyock jr. Who lives in new york area and previously known to Law Enforcement. He had some runins with the Law Enforcement in the past, and he has been arrested in connection with this bomb probe. He is believed to be 56 years old and we had mentioned that earlier, and so, that reporting from my colleague Pete Williams and jonathan dienst, and again, repeating ceasar cyock jr. , Current Cannily Living in florida has been r arreeen arre connection to the bombing probe, and we know that we have a Press Conference at 2 30, a and little confusion as to whether or not a
criminal complaint is ready on him yet, but we will get the Court Documents as soon as the folks over in the federal Prosecutors Office can get them to us. Does he have a record . This person is believed to have a prior record. Theres a little bit of confusion about that record, about some of the things that he has in the past, and right now, the nbc news investigative team, we are pouring over the records, and we will be able to, we will be able to get that. And in addition, we have, and we may have a picture of a prior arrest, and white male in the 50s, and we then circled that the around to 56 and now we can name the person as cesar sayoc jr. Taken into custody, and this the van belongs to him or
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