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Police investigate suspicious package sent to Robert De Niro in NYC

Posted at 6:44 AM, Oct 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-25 06:45:06-04

Police are examining a suspicious package addressed to actor-director Robert De Niro at a building in Lower Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, two law enforcement sources said early Thursday.

The package has markings similar to the pipe bomb packages recently mailed nationwide to top Democrats, the sources said.

The address, 375 Greenwich St., matches that of Tribeca Enterprises, De Niro’s film and television production company and organizer of the Tribeca Film festival. The site also contains De Niro’s Tribeca Grill restaurant.

De Niro is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.

Police were called at 4:45 a.m. Thursday about the package, which was on the building’s seventh floor.

Like most of the other packages, the return address was that of Democratic US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the sources said. There is no information to suggest she sent the packages.

And, just as the other packages, the one sent to De Niro had six American-flag stamps arrayed in two rows. No postmark is visible on the front of the De Niro package, similar to some of the others, the sources said.

None of the bombs in the other packages detonated, and no one was injured.

Before this package was reported, authorities said pipe bombs stashed in manila envelopes were discovered this week addressed to seven prominent Trump critics: Former President Barack Obama; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; former Attorney General Eric Holder; Democratic US Rep. Maxine Waters; former CIA director John Brennan (sent to CNN’s New York offices); former Vice President Joe Biden; and billionaire investor and Democratic donor George Soros.

De Niro’s criticism of Trump

At June’s Tony Awards, De Niro went off-script while introducing a performance by Bruce Springsteen to curse Trump.

“First, I wanna say, ‘f**k Trump,'” De Niro said. “It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump,’ it’s ‘f**k Trump.'”

Trump responded to the comments in a series of tweets, calling De Niro “a very low IQ individual.”

It wasn’t the first time De Niro had spoken out against the President.

In January, his speech at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala included a profanity-laced rant directed at Trump.

“Our baby-in-chief — the j***-off-in-chief, I call him — has put the press under siege, ridiculing it and trying to discredit it through outrageous attacks and lies,” De Niro said. “”This f***ing idiot is the President. It’s ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ — the guy is a f***ing fool … our baby-in-chief — the ‘J******-in-chief’ I call him.”

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Click here for full coverage on the 2018 package bombs.