CNN Received Another Suspicious Package This Morning
Less than one week after a pipe bomb addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan forced a building-wide evacuation of their Manhattan offices, CNN says another one of its buildings has been targeted by a “suspicious package” sent through the mail.
In a short statement released on Monday morning, CNN President Jeff Zucker said the package had been intercepted at a postage facility in Atlanta, GA, and that there is no “imminent danger” to the Atlanta-based network’s corporate headquarters.
“All mail, at all CNN domestic bureaus, is being screened at off-site facilities as of last Wednesday,” Zucker said. “This package would NOT have come directly to the CNN Center, even if it hadn’t been intercepted first.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that police were called in response to the suspicious package at just after 9:30 a.m. on Monday, and that the package in question “looks similar in appearance” to those which were sent last week.
In addition to the first package sent to CNN which was intended for Brennan, another package addressed to CNN’s New York offices and intended for former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was intercepted on Friday.
Cesar Sayoc, the man believed to be responsible for the mailed explosives sent to CNN as well as a number of prominent Democrats and Democratic donors, was arrested by the FBI on Friday. At a Friday press conference announcing the charges against Sayoc, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that “there may be other packages in transit now—other packages on the way.” There is no indication as of yet, however, that this latest incident is in any way connected with last week’s mailbombs.
Since his arrest, Sayoc’s social media history has painted the picture of a deeply troubled man who increasingly bought into President Donald Trump’s rhetoric against the media and Democrats.
The president himself, meanwhile, has spent the past several days doubling down on that message, including calling the media the “true Enemy of the People” in a tweet sent shortly before Zucker announced this latest threat.