Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and CNN Offices Are Sent Pipe Bombs

That device was constructed from a length of pipe a little longer than six inches and wrapped in black tape with what appeared to be epoxy on the ends, according to a person who had seen a photograph of it. What could be a timer was attached to the side of the pipe and wires were visible at both ends. Like the bomb sent to Mr. Soros’s home, the envelope it arrived in was roughly 5-by-8 inches and had a printed white address label and half a dozen first-class postage stamps affixed to the outside.

On Wednesday afternoon, New York City’s police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, said the CNN bomb was “a live explosive device” and that it would be rendered harmless and sent to the F.B.I. to be analyzed. The package that contained the device also included white powder that the police were testing to determine if it is toxic, he said.

One of the envelopes sent out had several stamps on it, more postage than it needed to be delivered, according to a former law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The extra postage led investigators to believe that the person who mailed it wanted to avoid going to a post office to buy the correct postage — a step to evade detection, the official said.

The statement from the Secret Service also said: “The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such. The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”