New York Man Arrested for Allegedly Planning Election Day Suicide Bombing

A 56-year-old man from Rockland County, New York, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly making a 200-pound explosive device as part of a plot to bomb the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Election Day, local-news station WABC reports. Authorities said they searched Paul Rosenfeld’s home in Tappan and found a “functional” bomb weighing 200 pounds along with a “fusing system for triggering explosive devices.” Officials alleged Rosenfeld built the bomb in Rockland and intended to detonate it at the National Mall in a suicide bombing. Rosenfeld allegedly wanted to draw attention to an ideology called “sortition,” a belief that the government should be “selected by lottery rather than popular vote.” Authorities said he was caught after he started talking about his alleged plan to an individual in Pennsylvania.