Cesar Sayoc, who spawned a week of panic and a massive federal manhunt last October after he mailed a series of pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and media figures, was a cognitively limited and emotionally traumatized man who fell into a paranoid alternate reality thanks to misinformation and Trump’s rhetoric, his lawyers argued this week.

Sayoc, 57, pleaded guilty to 65 federal charges in March, including “use of a weapon of mass destruction.” He was nicknamed the “MAGA bomber” by the tabloids, after federal agents discovered his van adorned with pro-Trump stickers.

Sayoc is facing life imprisonment when he is sentenced in August, but his public defenders have asked the judge to show leniency and sentence him to 10 years because of mitigating factors, including his mental state, the effect of misinformation on him, and the fact that none of the crudely-designed bombs he sent actually went off.

According to his lawyers, Sayoc was born with “cognitive limitations and severe learning disabilities that made it difficult for him to maintain relationships and succeed in school.” He was abandoned by his father at a young age and sexually assaulted while at school. Sayoc’s home foreclosed […]