Mail bomber sentenced to 20 years behind bars

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Cesar Sayoc at a Donald Trump rally in Florida.

Mail bomber Cesar Sayoc was sentenced Monday (Aug. 5) to 20 years in prison for sending bombs to perceived enemies of his hero Donald Trump.

Prosecutors had asked that the Filipino American, 57, receive a sentence of life in prison for the mail bombing spree.

Sayoc, a 57-year-old former exotic dancer, deejay and pizza deliverer, had pleaded guilty on March 21 to 65 criminal counts, which included using weapons of mass destruction and illegal mailing of explosives with intent to kill or injure. Prosecutors said Sayoc's crimes amounts to a "domestic terrorist attack."

The reason Sayoc didn't receive a longer sentence is that his lawyers were able to paint Sayoc as a victim, a man who suffered from traumatic events in his life and was vulnerable to the hateful rhetoric espoused by Donald Trump and Fox News.

In their own sentencing written argument, defense lawyers submitted that, "a series of traumatic events pushed Cesar Sayoc further and further into the margins of society."

Those events included being abandoned by his father as a boy, being sexually abused by a teacher at his Catholic school, and losing "everything in the Great Recession."

"As a man, he became increasingly estranged from his family and dependent on drugs, particularly steroids," Sayoc's lawyers wrote.

"By 2018, he was living alone in a decrepit and cramped van that had been his home for more than a decade. A typical day saw Mr. Sayoc waking up in his van, showering at the gym, and cooking crockpot meals while inside the DJ booth of a strip club before heading off to his second job delivering pizza. As he grew older and more isolated, excessive steroid use increased his feelings of anxiety and paranoia."

Sayoc was arrested Oct. 26, 2018, two days after bombs were mailed to a number of individuals and organizations that he believed were enemies of Trump, who he idolized.

Sayoc's intended targets included former Presidents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, the news network CNN, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan, Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Kamala Harris, D-CA, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, former Director James Clapper and Tom Steyer, the billionaire now running for the Democratic presidential nomination with Booker and Harris. The packages carried a return address of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, the former chief of the Democratic National Committee.

Although the crude pipe bombs did not explode, and no one was injured, Manhattan US Circuit Judge Jed Rakoff said: "The nature and circumstances of the ... offenses are, by any measure, horrendous."

Sayoc created "a climate of fear and terror, going on, day after day, for several weeks," Rakoff added.

Sayoc was given an opportunity to speak where he expressed remorse for his actions. He wept while the sentence was imposed, minutes earlier tried to hold back tears while saying he regretted his actions.

"I am beyond so very sorry for what I did," Sayoc told the judge.

"Your Honor, I understand now that I have committed a serious crime. I fully accept responsibility," he told the judge.

Referring to his intended targets, he added: "I will be apologizing to them for the rest of my life."

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Mail bomber's lawyers blame Trump rhetoric, Fox News for his mental state

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Cesar Sayoc at a Donald Trump rally.

Donald Trump superfan Cesar Sayoc, who mailed explosives to his hero's critics, turned violent on a steady diet of Fox News, Trump tweets, and Facebook, claim his lawyers.
According to his lawyers, the 57-year old Filipino American who apparently had identity issues, Sayoc is a sexual abuse survivor who viewed Trump as a "surrogate father."

The question is not one of guilt since Sayoc admitted he sent the mail bombs to perceived enemies of Trump, wrote Sayoc's attorneys in a New York federal court on Monday (July 22).

On social media, Sayoc promoted far-right conspiracy theories and threatened people who were critical of Trump. He faces the possibility of life in prison for the mail bombings.

But Sayoc’s lawyers painted a picture of their client as a man struggling with “cognitive limitations and mental illness” who was manipulated by conservative media and the Trump's Twitter feed.

Already an admirer of Trump, Sayoc's lawyers said their client “began watching Fox News religiously,” started following political news on Facebook and and “threw himself into” Trump’s campaign once he announced his candidacy because he “came to view Trump as a personal champion—someone who had helped him through the most difficult periods of his life and who could do the same for other people across the country.” 

Isolated and abusing steroids, Sayoc lived a lonely life, his attorneys claimed in a Monday filing.

“By 2018, he was living alone in a decrepit and cramped van that had been his home for more than a decade,” the lawyers wrote. “A typical day saw Mr. Sayoc waking up in his van, showering at the gym, and cooking crockpot meals while inside the DJ booth of a strip club before heading off to his second job delivering pizza. As he grew older and more isolated, excessive steroid use increased his feelings of anxiety and paranoia.

“In this darkness, Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump.”

Sayoc, his lawyers wrote, “began watching Fox News religiously at the gym, planning his morning workout to coincide with Fox and Friends and his evenings to dovetail with Hannity.” With his use of steroids, they said, he became paranoid and delusional about the false news stories that clogged his social media feeds.

“Because of his cognitive limitations and mental illness, he believed outlandish reports in the news and on social media, which increasingly made him unhinged. He became obsessed with ‘attacks’ from those he perceived as Trump’s enemies. He believed stories shared on Facebook that Trump supporters were being beaten in the streets. He came to believe that he was being personally targeted for supporting Trump: Mr. Sayoc thought that anti-Trump forces were trying to hurt him and they were to blame when his van was vandalized,” they wrote.

“A rational observer may have brushed off Trump’s tweets as hyperbole, but Mr. Sayoc took them to heart,” according to Sayoc’s attorneys.

Sayoc’s mother has called on Trump to tone down his rhetoric. “Our political leaders, like our President Donald Trump, need to recognize that there are many sick people in this country who take their rhetoric and words of ‘War with the Media’ and ‘War with the Democrats’ to heart,” Madeline Sayoc said in a statement last year.

Sayoc's Facebook account is almost exclusively pro-Trump content, including pictures and videos Sayoc purportedly filmed at one of the president’s political rallies. And the Twitter feed is littered with far-right conspiracy theories or violent threats aimed at some of President Trump’s most outspoken critics.

Sayoc's Filipino father left the family when he divorced his Brooklyn-born wife, died in 2009. In his social media posts, Sayoc claimed to be a member of the Seminole Nation but the Native American tribe say Sayoc is not on any of their rolls.

Sayoc mailed pipe bombs to numerous Democrats, including former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, several members of Congress and actor Robert De Niro. He also sent explosives to CNN. None of the IED's exploded.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, he said he didn't intend any of the bombs to explode. They were only intended to scare the recipient.

Judge Rakoff set the he would announce the Sayoc's sentence on Aug. 5.

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Cesar Sayoc, the mail bomber, walks back on his guilty plea

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Cesar Sayoc at a rally for then candidate Donald Trump.

The Trump-loving mail bomber Cesar Sayoc tried to downplay his attempt to mail bombs to prominent Democrats and news media as a prank, not meant to hurt anybody.

Sayoc pleaded guilty late last month to sending pipe bombs to Trump critics just weeks before the 2018 midterm elections.

Less than two days after his guilty plea, the Filipino American wrote the judge a letter saying he was misunderstood at his plea hearing.

On Tuesday, the 57-year old Florida resident's March 23rd handwritten letter to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff was made public. In his letter, Sayoc wrote that his intention was only to “intimidate and scare.”

He explained in his letter, “what started out as hoax, decoys, devices were not meant to work or could have worked, hurt or harm anyone.”

Sayoc added that he is “forever sincerely in remorse and extremely sorry” for what happened.

Sayoc, who reportedly saw Trump as a father figure, pleaded guilty March 21 to sending bombs to 16 Democratic targets, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. None of the bombs detonated.

In court, the judge asked Sayoc if he knew the devices would hurt anyone. In his letter, Sayoc said his lawyer told him to say yes.

He said he didn’t have a full understanding of what to say — that he answered under extreme emotional circumstances.

He also sent Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff e a second letter dated April 1, in which he said he was “freaked out overwhelmed nervious (sic) with anxiety” when he pleaded guilty.

“I was not aware of risk,” he said, referring to the devices. “The fireworks was a sparkler and not capable of exploding. I am not a chemist or scientist.”

At the time of his arrest, Sayoc had been living in a van plastered with stickers oft Trump and images of Trump opponents with cross hairs over their faces.
Sayoc faces the possibility of life sentence. The judge has given prosecutors and defense lawyers until April 15 to comment – on whether Sayoc’s letters will impact his guilty plea.

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Cesar Sayoc pleads 'guilty' to 65 felonies including 16 mail bombs

CESAR SAYOC

A fanatical supporter of Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to 65 felonies that include mailing improvised explosive devices to prominent Democrats and a media outlet that he considered anti-Trump.

Cesar Altieri Sayoc, the Filipino American exotic dancer and deejay, issued his plea Thursday (March 21) in a Manhattan federal court.

“Cesar Sayoc has admitted to acts of domestic terrorism that are repulsive to all Americans who cherish a society built on respectful and non-violent political discourse, no matter how strongly held one’s views,” said Assistant Attorney General John C.  Demers. “Our democracy will simply not survive if our political discourse includes sending bombs to those we disagree with.

Among the 57-year old Sayoc's felonies are the 16 crude pipe bombs sent via the U.S. Postal Service to prominent individuals -- all of them Democrats -- and news outlet CNN.

In alphabetical order, Sayoc’s intended victims were former Vice President Joseph Biden, Senator Cory Booker, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, Robert De Niro, Senator Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama, billionaire George Soros, tech giant Thomas Steyer, and Rep. Maxine Walters. 

Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2, 2018, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service recovered all of the 16 IEDs mailed by Sayoc. All of them had failed to explode.

Sayoc, who was born in Brooklyn but had lived in Florida for more than 30 years, had long struggled with mental illness, said Ronald S. Lowy, a family lawyer. He suggested psychological issues were behind his actions.

Sayoc's mental state made him a prime target for someone like Donald Trump whose rhetoric of hate and racism gave him a sense of purpose and drove him to the extreme right. At the time of his arrest, Sayoc had been living in his van which was plastered with pro-Trump flyers and had an image of Hillary Clinton in a cross-hairs.

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Cesar Sayoc attended a rally for Donald Trump

It appears Sayoc had an identity problem. Various media reports have painted a picture of a deeply troubled man

Sayoc's mental state made him a prime target for someone like Donald Trump whose rhetoric of hate and racism gave him a sense of purpose and drove him to the extreme right.

He mother was of Italian descent and is a resident of Florida. Sayoc had lived with her of and on. He berated her for being a Democrat and after arguments about his inability to have and maintain a full-time job, kicked him out her condominium in 2015. 

His father was an immigrant from the Philippines but apparently abandoned his family when Sayoc was still a young boy.

Sayoc claimed to be a member of the Seminole Nation but the tribe says they have no record of him as a member. 

Lowy told media at a press conference that he believed estrangement from his family caused his client's mental condition to deteriorate.

“If you want to know about causation,” the attorney said, “there are three reasons.

"Number one: He was isolated from his family. Number two: He hated his mother for being a Democrat—this is a nice way to get back at her, don’t you think? And the third: He heard a voice calling his name, saying that there’s a war happening, that the Democrats are the enemy, that the media is the enemy, and that you (Sayoc) are my soldiers.”

“For five days in November 2018, Cesar Sayoc reigned terror across the country, sending high-ranking officials and former elected leaders explosive packages through the mail,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. “Thankfully no one was hurt by these dangerous devices, but his actions left an air of fear and divisiveness in their wake. Sayoc has taken responsibility for his crimes, and will soon be sentenced to significant time in prison.”

Sayoc is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Rakoff on Sept. 12, 2019.

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Mail bomb suspect indicted in New York

BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

Cesar Sayoc, insert, and one of the homemade explosive devices that was sent through the U.S. mail.

CESAR ALTIERI SAYOC, aka Cesar Randazzo, aka Cesar Altieri, and aka Cesar Altieri Randazzo, 56, was charged today in a 30-count Indictment for mailing bombs to critics of Donald Trump.

After being transferred from Florida earlier this week, Sayoc and his attorney Sarah Baumgartel appeared in the New York courtroom of U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff He is being held without bail.

Last month, Sayoc is suspected of mailing 16 improvised explosive devices to 13 people throughout the country including President Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire Richard Soros and California Sen. Kamala Harris. None of the bombs detonated.

If found guilty, the 56-year old Sayoc could receive a life sentence.

“Sayoc’s alleged conduct put numerous lives at risk. It was also an assault on a nation that values the rule of law, a free press, and tolerance of differences without rancor or resort to violence. Thanks to the diligent and determined work of our law enforcement partners here and across the country, it took just five days to identify and apprehend Sayoc and end his reign of terror. He now faces justice from a nation of laws,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman for the Southern District of New York.

Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service recovered 16 padded manila envelopes containing IEDs allegedly mailed by Sayoc from Florida to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Atlanta and California. 

Sayoc’s alleged victims, listed alphabetically, were former Vice President Joseph Biden, Senator Cory Booker, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, Robert De Niro, Senator Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama, George Soros, Thomas Steyer, and Rep. Maxine Walters.

Each of the 16 envelopes allegedly mailed by Sayoc had similar features, including the return addressee “Debbie Wasserman Shultz” at an address in “Florids,” (sic) six self-adhesive postage stamps bearing the American flag, and address labels printed on white paper with blank ink in similar typeface and font size. Each of the 16 envelopes also contained an IED. The 16 IEDs also had similar features, including approximately six inches of PVC pipe packed with explosive material, a small clock, and wiring. Some of the IEDs also contained shards of glass. 

Preliminary analysis by the FBI has revealed forensic evidence linking 11 of the 16 mailings to Sayoc. Specifically, latent fingerprints on two of the envelopes have been identified to Sayoc, and there are possible DNA associations between a DNA sample collected from Sayoc prior to his arrest in this case and DNA found on components from 10 of the IEDs (including one of the IEDs that was mailed in an envelope from which a latent fingerprint identified to Sayoc was recovered).

The FBI arrested Sayoc in Plantation, Florida, on Oct. 26 – less than five days after the Oct. 22 recovery of the first IED, which Sayoc allegedly mailed to Soros in New York. The FBI seized a laptop from Sayoc’s van in connection with the arrest that contained lists of physical addresses that match many of the labels on the envelopes that Sayoc allegedly mailed. 

The lists were saved at a file path on the laptop that includes a variant of Sayoc’s first name: “Users/Ceasar/Documents.” A document from that path, titled “Debbie W.docx” and bearing a creation date of July 26, contained repeated copies of an address for “Debbie W. Schultz” in Sunrise, Florida, that is nearly identical, except for typographical errors, to the return address that Sayoc allegedly used on the packages. 

Sayoc's late father was from the Philippines who married a U.S. citizen. The suspected mail bomber's social media accounts made dubious claims of being a descendent of prominent individuals in the Philippines with the same last name. 

Authorities found a laptop in his van when he was arrested. In those same social media accounts, which have been deleted or blocked, there were pictures of him at pro-Trump rallies wearing the distinctive red MAGA cap.

He is estranged from his family and for the last several months, he reportedly was living out of his van while working as bouncer at a nightclub. The van was covered with pro-Trump decals and several pictures of people who received the mail bombs, several with the cross-hairs superimposed over them.

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Mail bomber will face charges in New York

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Mail bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc appears to be a devout supporter of Donald Trump.

MAIL BOMB SUSPECT Cesar Sayoc waived a bond hearing in Miami on Friday and agreed to be transported to New York to face federal charges for mailing explosive devices to critics of Donald Trump.

Sayoc, the 56-year-old Filipino American, has been in federal custody in Miami since his arrest a week ago in Plantation, Florida for allegedly mailing bombs to Trump critics including former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, CNN  and a dozen others.

Federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York have charged him with five criminal counts: Interstate transport of explosives, mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents, making threatening interstate communications and assault of current or former officials.

He faces up to 48 years behind bars if convicted of all counts: interstate transportation of an explosive; illegal mailing of explosives; threats against former presidents and certain other persons; threatening interstate communications; and assaulting current and former federal officers.

“The magnitude of what has happened does weigh on him," Aaronson told ABC News Friday, after telling reporters he's known Sayoc for nearly five years. "He was the most respectful client that I have ever represented. When I heard his name in connection to this, I just stuttered and stammered that he could possibly be involved. It's just not the person that I know."

No date was confirmed for the transfer that could occur within the next three weeks.

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Filipino American suspect arrested for mailing bombs to Trump critics

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Cesar Sayoc attended a Donald Trump rally.

THE FLORIDA MAN arrested and charged on Friday in connection with the wave of improvised explosive devices mailed this week to prominent Democrats and critics of Donald Trump, tried to pass himself off as a member of the Seminole Nation. 
Cesar Altieri Sayoc's mixed heritage was actually Filipino and Italian.

Sayoc, a registered Republican, has lived in South Florida for decades, according to court documents, property records and other documents. On social media he posted several verbal attacks against critics of Trump.

According to the Miami Herald, he was born in Brooklyn in 1962, the son of a Filipino immigrant, and attended North Miami Beach High School, according to information from ancestry.com, the genealogy company that tests the DNA of customers to reveal ancestral roots. His mother, Madeline Sayoc  Altieri, of Italian descent, was born in Brooklyn.

An immigration naturalization certificate for a Ceasar Sayoc of North Miami Beach, believed to be the father of Cesar Sayoc, shows the elder Sayoc was naturalized in March 1970. 

The Miami Herald also found on ancestry.com, a genealogy company, that the elder Ceasar Sayoc, who was born in 1932, immigrated from the Philippines. He died in 2009. 

The younger Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, was arrested Friday (Oct. 26) for allegedly mailing pipe bombs to at least 13 prominent Democrats.

“This was someone lost,“ attorney Ron Lowy told Anderson Cooper on CNN Friday.

He told Cooper that Sayoc was “abandoned by his father” and was desperately seeking an identity. He “was looking for anything and he found a father in Trump,” said Lowy. Sayoc had never been politically active until Trump’s campaign for the presidency, said Lowy, who represented Sayoc in the past on various criminal charges.

It’s “my opinion that he was attracted to the Trump formula of reaching out, Trump reaching out to these types of outsiders, people who don’t fit in, people who are angry at America, telling them they have a place at the table, telling them that it’s okay to get angry,” Lowy said on CNN. “I believe that was a motivating factor.”
It appears that Sayoc lived in a fantasy world and most of what he claimed in Linkedin, Facebook and other social media sites were most likely fabrications. He inferred on his social media pages that he was a member of the Sseminoles, a Native American tribe based in Florida. The tribe said they have no records on Sayoc.

HEAVY

Heavy obtained a copy of the father of the suspected mail bomber.

The FBI visited a condominium complex Friday and learned that Sayoc’s mother in a hospital bed after having surgery, The family's lawyer told WSVN-TV, that the suspect is “mentally ill and insecure.”

A cousin, who wished to remain anonymous,  told NBC that Sayoc worked as a dancer and bouncer at strip clubs, telling the network, “He’s always been a little bit of a loose cannon. He’s always been a lost soul. Too many steroids in his day. That stuff will melt your brain.”

On Sayoc's LinkedIn page, he says that his grandfather, Col. Baltazar Zook Sayoc, was a martial arts practitioner who developed his own style of fighting, Sayoc Kali. Sayoc says that style was used to fight the Communist Party of the Philippines. Here is a detailed website about the fighting style. (The Kali Sayoc school, in New York, has issued a statement saying that it has no knowledge of Cesar Sayoc and that it condemns any actions that threaten the democratic process.)

He also claims to have a BA in economics from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and aspires to be a "horse doctor."

Highpoint University, where Sayoc claimed to be attending to earn a degree in veterinary medicine.

On his Twitter page Sayoc cliams that he is a former professional soccer player and cage fighter. The Sun Sentinel reports that Sayoc is the owner of two businesses, Native American Catering and Ver Tech AG.

The Florida MMA promotion group Combat Night issued a statement saying that they were not affiliated with Sayoc, although its sticker was on his van.

Sayoc has a long record dating back to 1991 of brushes with the law. In 2002, he was arrested for threatening to bomb a Florida power company. For that threat, he received a year's probation.

So he had his fingerprints on file and that led to his arrest when a fingerprint was found on one of bomb packages he had sent out.

Sayoc faces five charges, according to the Department of Justice complaint: interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and certain other persons, threatening interstate communications, and assaulting federal officers. If he is found guilty of all the charges, Sayoc could face up to 48 years in prison.

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