Bombs sent to Clintons’ home, other New York spots

An apparent pipe bomb plot targeting a number of high-profile Democratic political players put multiple locations across New York on high alert on Wednesday.

The Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle in Manhattan was evacuated after a pipe bomb was sent through the mail to the CNN offices on Wednesday morning. Similar bombs were sent to the Westchester County home of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, as well as the Washington, D.C., home of former President Barack Obama.

The bombs were safely removed from the scenes without detonating, and nobody was injured. At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, NYPD counterterrorism chief John Miller described the device sent to the CNN office as a “pipe bomb,” commonly used to refer to a homemade, improvised explosive device.

A similar device was reportedly left on Monday at philanthropist George Soros’ home in Westchester County. The package sent to the CNN offices was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, an Obama appointee who often appears on the station as a political analyst. All of the bombs were sent to Democratic political players who are frequent targets of right wing ire. NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill wouldn’t go into detail when asked about it on Wednesday, but suggested that the department was reaching out proactively to people with similar political profiles to intercept any potential suspicious packages.

There were reports of other suspicious packages sent to Democratic politicians Wednesday, including at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office and the Sunrise, Florida, office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman. But Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said Wednesday afternoon that the suspicious package sent to Cuomo’s office was confirmed not to be a bomb, but a thumb drive containing information about the hate group the Proud Boys.