Update 11:30 p.m. Dec. 25: A 45-year-old psychologist has taken credit for leaving a package filled with manure at Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's home in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.
Robert Strong, who works for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, told Reuters he left the package to protest the Republican tax bill signed by President Trump last week.
"Protest really should be funny," he told Reuters. "People's eyes glaze over when they just see angry people in the streets."
Strong told AL.com that he delivered a pair of manure-filled boxes to Mnuchin. One went to a home the treasury secretary owns in Beverly Hills while the second, which prompted a police response over the weekend, went to Mnuchin's home in Bel Air.
It was not immediately clear whether Strong’s protest would carry criminal charges.
Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Rob Weise, who is not investigating the case, told Reuters that "if the box did not present any danger, it would not be illegal."
Cody Starken, a spokesman with the U.S. Secret Service, told The Associated Press on Monday that a person was interviewed in connection to the manure-filled box. Strong told AL.com that he spoke with Secret Service agents after they showed up on his front lawn.
"The fact that (Republicans) can be so brazen and act with such impunity tells me that we have to be more brazen with our activism and maybe a bit more aggressive," he told the news site.
Original report: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin received a package over the weekend, but what was inside was less than festive.
According to NBC Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad arrived at Mnuchin's Bel Air residence in response to the delivery of a suspicious package: a large box covered in wrapping paper.
The package was delivered to his Mnuchin’s neighbor, but was intended for him. Fearing the worst, the Secret Service also became involved in the incident.
The package was cleared later that evening after it became apparent that Mnuchin was sent a box full of horse manure, not explosives.
There was also a Christmas card with the present, which made references to Mnuchin, President Trump and the president’s tax bill. There were no threats inside the card.
Mnuchin was “made aware of the situation” as it progressed. He was inside his home at the time.
LAPD West Los Angeles Area Watch Commander Rob Weise reported that Mnuchin was not forced to evacuate his home. His street, however, was closed temporarily.
Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, Mnuchin's neighbor and widower of the late Zsa Zsa Gabor, said he was stuck in his house for two hours because of the package.
“We have $50 million homes and we can’t move, we can’t get out,” he said. “That’s bad, they have to find another way.”
The Secret Service is investigating the incident.
Mnuchin was narrowly confirmed to his role in the administration by the U.S. Senate in February.
Since that time, he faced a brief scandal after his new wife, Louise Linton, bragged on Instagram about the couple's travels. When an Instagram user expressed their distaste for taxpayer funds going towards their travel, Linton rudely called the commenter "adorably out of touch," and accused her of sacrificing less than she and her husband do, as they pay more in taxes.
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