A third suspicious package found in the mailroom of Time Warner Center in New York City forced the evacuation of the building, which houses CNN’s New York bureau.
The package addressed to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s home in Chappaqua, N.Y., was recovered late Tuesday, the Secret Service said in a statement to Yahoo News. A second package addressed to Obama was intercepted by Secret Service personnel in Washington, D.C., early Wednesday. The Secret Service screens all mail addressed to its protectees; the Clintons and Obamas have had Secret Service detail since serving in the White House.
“The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the statement read. “The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”
The
Secret Service said it has “initiated a full scope criminal
investigation” to “determine the source of the packages and identify
those responsible.”
The discovery of the three packages comes just two days after a pipe bomb was found in the Bedford, N.Y., mailbox of billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Soros, like the Clintons, lives in Westchester County. According to the New York Times,
the device sent to the Clintons was similar to the one sent to Soros, a
liberal donor who has long been the target of conservative
conspiracies.
Officials
told ABC News that the devices found in packages addressed to Soros,
Clinton and Obama “appear to be of similar pipe bomb style
construction.”
NBC
News reported that the return address on the suspicious packages sent
to Soros, Clinton and Obama belonged to Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz,
D-Fla., a former Democratic National Committee official.
Wasserman-Schultz’s offices in Sunrise, Fla., were evacuated Wednesday
after a suspicious package was found mailed there, local police said.
According
to CNN, the package that triggered the evacuations there was intended
for former Attorney General Eric Holder but included the wrong address,
so it was returned to Wasserman-Schultz’s offices.
Meanwhile,
multiple news organizations reported a suspicious package addressed to
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was intercepted Wednesday at a
congressional mail facility.
At
the White House, press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement
condemning the “attempted violent attacks recently made against
President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and other public
figures.”
“These
terrorizing acts are despicable,” she added. “And anyone responsible
will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The United
States Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies are
investigating and will take all appropriate actions to protect anyone
threatened by these cowards.”
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