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| Robert De Niro Photo: Georges Biard |
As the FBI investigates pipe bombs sent to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other prominent critics of Donald Trump, it has emerged that a suspicious package was sent to a Manhattan restaurant owned by Robert De Niro. Although the actor often spends time in the restaurant himself, it was empty when the package arrived, and the building worker who found it reported it to the police. It was subsequently removed by the bomb squad.
It has not yet been confirmed whether or not the package at the TriBeCa grill had the potential to explode but police have described it as a similar to the packages sent to Clinton et al. New York police say they are confident that arrests will be made.
De Niro made a passionate speech criticising the President at the Tony Awards in June, for which he received a standing ovation, and it is believed that this may have inspired the bomber to identify him as a target. Similar packages have been sent to CNN and the Time Warner building, requiring staff to be evacuated.
"Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself," said Trump, condemning the actions of the unknown sender nicknamed the 'magabomber', but he went on to imply that the media was to blame for failing to set "a civil tone."
De Niro has yet to comment on the incident.
