The Florida man who pleaded guilty to sending pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and CNN was radicalized by regularly reading President Donald Trump’s tweets and watching Fox News on a daily basis, his attorneys have argued, according to a report in BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.
In a sentencing memo earlier this week, attorneys for Cesar Altieri Sayoc said their client struggled with steroid abuse, “cognitive limitations and mental illness” that made him susceptible to “outlandish reports in the news and on social media.”
This led him to believe, his lawyers said, that “prominent Democrats were actively working to hurt him, other Trump supporters, and the country as a whole,” an idea which was reinforced by his daily consumption of Fox News and Trump’s tweets.
His lawyers added in the memo that “After months suffering from these delusional beliefs and while using large doses of steroids, his heightened paranoia and anger pushed him to commit these offenses.”
Sayoc faces 65 counts and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12, according to The Hill.
At the time of his arrest, Sayoc was living in a van plastered with stickers in support of Trump and images of the president's opponents with red crosshairs over their faces, according to the New York Post.
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