Federal investigators are racing to find who sent the 10 mail bombs to former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other public figures, and are now chasing leads pointing to South Florida as the potential origin of these dangerous parcels.
Sources told ABC News Thursday that law enforcement agencies are sending additional resources to the Florida area in an effort to pinpoint who exactly mailed the bomb packages that authorities are saying were meant to maim or kill the recipients.
“We are investigating all this with great precision. I can say with certainty that we will identify and arrest the person or people responsible for these acts,” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “Law enforcement professionals do not care about the politics involved in these acts.”
Bill Sweeney of the FBI’s New York office said the investigation “is a nationwide investigation involving multiple jurisdictions coast to coast,” with agents “fully engaged” in this investigation.
X-ray photographs of the explosive devices obtained by ABC News shows that each device had a digital clock, explosive powder, a battery power source and wiring to channel a spark for detonation. Each device also contained glass as potential shrapnel. None of the explosive devices detonated.
The devices, which all went through the U.S. Postal Service, are now being examined at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, and being studied for fingerprints and DNA, CNN reports.
The FBI, Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are looking into where components of the explosive devices might have been purchased, which could help to locate the individual or individuals responsible.
While investigators have not yet been able to identify a motive for the mail bombs, all of the individuals that have been sent one of the bubble-wrapped-lined manila envelopes have all been critics of President Donald Trump, with several of the recipients having been publicly disparaged by the president either in a tweet on social media or in a political rally.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro are the latest prominent public figures in the series of 10 mail bombs to be sent explosive devices.
Former President Jimmy Carter has been warned to be on alert for suspicious packages being sent to him, his spokesperson told ABC News.
Philip Bartlett, head of the New York office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said postal police have been actively searching for any additional potential mail bombs, but have not found any other explosive devices as of Thursday morning.
“In terms of tracking, we have over 600,000 postal employees out there right now. We have the eyes and ears looking for these packages,” Bartlett said. “I will say in the postal network, we have found nothing in the last eight hours. So what we have so far is what we have, 10 parcels.”
Trump has said that his administration is “extremely angry” about the mail bombs, but Trump has blamed the media for causing the recent events.
A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018
“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
Former CIA Director John Brennan, whose name appeared on the package sent to CNN, called out Trump on his criticism of the media, saying the president needs to “stop blaming others” and “look in the mirror.”
Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act….try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence. https://t.co/cS5qNiuU7o
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) October 25, 2018
“Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act….try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence,” Brennan tweeted.