Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man arrested Friday on suspicious of sending potential explosives to Hillary Clinton, former President Obama, CNN and others, didn’t keep his political views a secret. They were emblazoned on his van.
South Florida station WPLG 10 aired live video Friday morning of Sayoc’s van as authorities towed it from an auto store parking lot in the town of Plantation. David Cypkin, a documentary filmmaker whose work includes “Cocaine Cowboys,” recognized it as a van that was parked for months near his home.
Two law enforcement sources told CNN that investigators found “soldering equipment, stamps, envelopes, paper, a printer and powder” inside the van.
On Dec. 31, 2017, he took some pictures of it. On Friday, he posted the photos — and metadata showing when he took them — on Twitter. Here they are:
I took photos of this van in December on a morning walk with my dog. I was always unsettled that it was parked directly across from Sarah's Tent, a kosher market. It often had the back door ajar and/or window cracked open as if it was occupied. pic.twitter.com/QXsscOiWHv
— David Cypkin (@DavidCypkin) October 26, 2018
from Photos on my Mac: ID's date and location pic.twitter.com/jKYSVwCdI0
— David Cypkin (@DavidCypkin) October 26, 2018
Here you go. metadata pic.twitter.com/k7Eld0qXx2
— David Cypkin (@DavidCypkin) October 26, 2018
And here is WPLG’s footage of the van being towed away Friday. Note the location of the flags on the left rear window, and the large image of President Trump on the side. The van had more stickers Friday than it does in Cypkin’s old photos.
Some on the left have labeled the case “MAGAbomb,” to suggest Trump inspired the mailings, and the hashtag “#MAGAbomber” has been trending on Twitter since Thursday. That has brought a backlash from conservatives, who say Trump — who has said political violence has no place in America – has been unfairly maligned.
Cypkin is well aware of the conspiracy theory that Democrats planted the van in order to link the mailings to President Trump. So he did everything possible to prove he took the photos 10 months ago — 10 months before the first Democrat received the first suspicious mailing.
“There’s a part of me that is always looking to keep a record. Maybe as a documentary filmmaker. And I suppose as a documentary filmmaker, I would say to these conspiracy minded people that everyone’s entitled to their perspective and their own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own reality,” he told TheWrap.
He said the van was “there at least a year. … I have seen it as recently as July.” He moved in August from his home near where he saw the van.
Sayoc, who was in law enforcement custody, could not be reached for comment Friday. The Washington Post spoke with Daniel Aaronson, an attorney who has represented Sayoc in the past, who told the Post that none of his clients were “as polite and as courteous and as respectful to me” as Sayoc.
He said Sayoc had never discussed his political views.
“In fact, I am a Democrat,” Aaronson told the Post. “I am very proud of some of the people that were targeted . . . so, if he had said anything along those lines, I certainly would have noted it, because we would have gotten into a political discussion.”
In one case, Aaronson said, Sayoc was accused of grand theft for stealing a suit. In another, he was charged with theft after going through a store checkout line without showing one of his items to a cashier.
He said Sayoc never discussed explosives.