Cesar Sayoc gets 20 years in prison for mailing pipe bombs to Trump critics

Cesar Sayoc has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after mailing pipe bombs to people and entities perceived to be critics of President Trump.

Sayoc sent 16 packages to Democratic politicians and news entities back in October, and pleaded guilty to 65 counts and to sending the packages back in March. Despite his lawyers arguing for a 10-year sentence due to an apparent untreated mental illness, Sayoc received 20 years in prison in a Monday appearance in a Manhattan federal court, The New York Times reports.

On Monday, Sayoc listed off the names of the people he'd mailed packages to, including former President Barack Obama, billionaire donor George Soros, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I will be apologizing to them for the rest of my life," Sayoc said in court. He also claimed that "now that I am a sober man, I know that I was a sick man" when he chose to send the packages. Sayoc's public defenders had previously attributed his crimes to a mix of steroids and a heavy diet of Fox News.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Sayoc sparked panic and a frenzy of false alarms when he sent out 16 packages to Democratic politicians, liberal donors, and news entities back in October. The devices inside the packages were crude pipe bombs that probably wouldn't have ignited, and his lawyers claimed Sayoc "did not think that the devices were capable of exploding." Government prosecutors argued that the devices' actual danger wasn't the point.