The Puzzle Of The January 6 Pipe Bombs

Yessterday I mentioned in passing the curious case, one of several from January 6, of two pipe bombs that were planted outside the Democrat and Republican national headquarters respectively. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms haven't been fully forthcoming over this case, and among other things, the perp or perps have never been idenified.

"People surmise and suspect that, 'oh, there's all this video all over the country, all over D.C.' It's not true," Steven D'Antuono, the former head of the FBI Washington Field Office, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on June 7, 2023.

. . . "We did every check, every lab test, every data. We ran this through systems back and forth, up and down, sideways, all over the place," he testified about the search for the suspect.

The bombs did not detonate, however, the FBI noted that the suspect placed them in "residential and commercial areas in Capitol Hill just blocks from the U.S. Capitol with viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders."

"Over the past three years, a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, data scientists and law enforcement partners has worked thousands of hours conducting interviews, reviewing physical and digital evidence, and assessing tips from the public about who may have placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill," said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

One of the questions raised about the bombs' viability, though, was the type of timers used. Although Mr D'Antonuo in his testimony claimed the FBI had determined that the bombs were viable, the problem remains that they didn't explode even though they were apparently intended to do so. Photos of the bombs indicate that the timers were one-hour kitchen type timers, but the bombs were discovered unexploded 17 hours after they had been placed. Per the House Judiciary Committee's release:

While Mr. D'Antuono referenced a report from the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, that the pipe bombs were viable, and 'they could explode, and they could cause harm or death,' Mr. D'Antuono also acknowledged that the timer used on the pipe bomb could not have detonated the pipe bomb given the time already elapsed between placement and discovery.

He testified:

Mr. Massie. Well, let me ask you this: Do you think it was technically possible for a kitchen timer . . . that has [a] 1-hour duration . . . to detonate a bomb 17 hours later?

A. No, I don't. And I saw the same kitchen timer as you. I agree. I don't know when they were supposed to go off. Maybe they weren't supposed to go off. We can't—we don't know. We honestly don't know, and that's some of the pain . . . .

A second problem was the FBI apparently never considered the person who discovered the bombs might be a suspect and seems to know nothing about him. Per the transcript of Mr D'Antuono's interview:

Mr. Massie. Because I think it's remarkable it was discovered within minutes of the other bomb being discovered. And my staff and I found video, and I don't know if you're aware of it, that seems to indicate that a passerby in a black hoodie --

Mr. D'Antuono. Oh, okay.

Mr. Massie. -- discovered that. Remarkably coincidental time. Walked up to a Metro police car, told the Metro police, who seems to have directed that individual in the video that I've seen to a detailee of the Vice President's car, another SUV, and within minutes, they get out of their SUV, find -- the officials now see the bomb. And then incoming Vice President Kamala Harris is evacuated. This all happens within minutes.

Mr. D'Antuono. Okay.

Mr. Massie. But the individual in a hoodie going up to two police cars after he's passed by that bench, did your investigation review this video?

Mr. D'Antuono. I'm not aware of the video you're talking about, sir. I'm not.

Mr. Massie. If you had seen that video, would you be interested in speaking to that person --

Mr. D'Antuono. Absolutely.

Mr. Massie. -- who seems to have discovered that second bomb?

Mr. D'Antuono. In any investigation, whoever discovers the device is somebody you need to talk to, right, because they could be the one that planted the device in the first place. You know, so that's just investigation 101.

But as far as anyone knows, even though the person or people who discovered the bombs went up to Capitol Police to report them, nobody seems to have taken their name or names and followed up.

This is especially puzzling, since the FBI has clear institutional memory of another bombing investigation, the Richard Jewell case:

During the 1996 Summer Olympics, a security guard named Richard Jewell discovered a bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996. Thanks to Jewell’s quick thinking, he was able to evacuate dozens of people just before the bomb exploded, saving untold lives.

But just a few days later, media reports surfaced that the FBI had made Jewell the prime suspect in the bombing. The hero quickly became a villain in the public eye. Media outlets across the country — from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to CNN — painted Richard Jewell as a wannabe cop who was so desperate to play the hero that he was willing to kill people for it.

For an agonizing 88 days, everyone seemed to agree that Richard Jewell was guilty — even though he had never even been officially charged with the crime. In reality, the FBI soon stopped investigating Jewell when they realized that he wasn’t the man they were looking for.

For that matter, the FBI had its institutional memory refreshed just two years earlier with the release of the 2019 Clint Eastwood film that covered the case. All of this feeds reasonable suspicion that if federal provocateurs didn't plant the bombs themselves, the FBI was aware of the effort and has been feigning incompetence to cover it up.

If we ever get good answers, it will only be after Trump is reelected in 2024.