The FBI on Thursday arrested a man who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot, according to two law enforcement sources.
The arrest follows a nearly five-year investigation to uncover the identity of the attacker, seen in grainy surveillance video wearing only a hoodie, gloves and a face mask.
Video clips previously released by the FBI showed one man placing a bomb outside the DNC headquarters and another in an alley behind the RNC building, both just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris came within 20 feet of the bomb at the DNC the next morning, and its discovery drew police away from the violence at the Capitol.
The FBI has stated that the bombs were viable and capable of harming anyone in their vicinity if they detonated. The discovery of the bombs led police to clear the Capitol complex before a mob of President Donald Trump supporters began breaking through the police cordon to attack the Capitol building.
The timing has helped build a conspiracy around the bombing suspect and possible links to the riots.
Investigators reviewed thousands of video files, hundreds of tips and examined cell phone tower data. They examined sales data for the black and brown Nike Air Max sneakers worn by the suspect – less than 25,000 of the shoes had been sold at the time the bomb was placed.
They were thwarted by several challenges, including poor surveillance video quality. Given the era of the pandemic, when face masks were common and the cold winter night, none of the witnesses found the bomber noteworthy.
The FBI had offered a $500,000 reward for information helping investigators identify the man and conducted a thousand interviews, but it is still struggling for years to determine who planted the crude bombs on January 5, 2021, the night before then-President Donald Trump made his last attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Investigators said both bombs were discovered 15 hours after they were placed, giving the suspect plenty of time to leave the area without being detected.
The investigation faced new scrutiny under the Trump administration, as some of the president’s allies have framed the identification of the Pipe Bomber as possible evidence that the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was an “inside job.” One of those associates, Dan Bongino, is now the deputy director of the FBI.
Before taking the FBI job, Bongino said on his podcast, “I believe the FBI knows the identity of this Pipe Bomber four years ago on January 6, and he doesn’t want to tell us because it was an inside job.” He also suggested that if the allegation of an “inside job” proved true, the FBI would claim the bombs were a “training exercise”.
Sources told CNN that Bongino has continued to focus on the pipe bomb case since arriving at the FBI. “I’m confident we’re catching some suspects,” he said in a Fox News interview shortly after taking the job. That simply was not true, people familiar with the matter told CNN at the time. Some clues that were developed were not revealed.
But in the months that followed, investigators turned up additional leads that were more promising. Just last month, Bongino said in a social media post on Twitter that the bureau had increased investigative resources, dispatched “police officers and detectives” to review the FBI’s past investigative actions, and conducted an internal review.
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