The J6 Pipe Bomber Story Explodes -- Or Does It?

Blaze Media published a lengthy, detailed story yesterday that alleges that the figure who appears in surveillance footage planting pipe bombs on the evening of January 5 in loose clothing, face covered with a mask and hoodie, was then-Capitol Police officer Shauni Rae Kerkhoff.

A forensic analysis of a female former U.S. Capitol Police officer’s gait is a 94%-98% match to the unique stride of the long-sought Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect, according to a Blaze News investigation confirmed by several intelligence sources.

A source close to a congressional investigation of Jan. 6 additionally told Blaze News evidence has emerged recently that pointed toward law enforcement possibly being involved in the planting of the pipe bombs.

A software algorithm that analyzes walking parameters including flexion (knee bend), hip extension, speed, step length, cadence, and variance rated Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, 31, of Alexandria, Va., as a 94% match to the bomb suspect shown on video from Jan. 5, 2021. The veteran analyst who ran the analysis for Blaze News said that based on visual observations the program can struggle with, he personally pegged the match at closer to 98%.

Kerkhoff, who was a Capitol Police officer for four and a half years, left the department in mid-2021 for a security detail at the Central Intelligence Agency, sources told Blaze News.

While a few alt aggregators have linked the story, many haven't. and there's been little reaction. The most complete set of arguments that the story is false is at The Daily Kos:

The Blaze's report centers on forensic gait analysis—a technique that compares how people walk. According to their investigation, a software algorithm produced a "94%-98% match" between Kerkhoff's gait and that of the pipe bomb suspect captured on video. Several unnamed "intelligence sources" allegedly confirmed these findings.

But here's what's missing: any official confirmation whatsoever. The FBI, Capitol Police, and Department of Justice all declined to comment on The Blaze's report. More importantly, Ed Martin, a DOJ special attorney, explicitly stated that the DOJ has not identified Kerkhoff as the suspect—directly contradicting any suggestion that government officials had confirmed the identification.

. . . Gait analysis can be a useful forensic tool, but it's far from foolproof. The American Bar Association notes that while gait analysis "can be compelling, corroborating evidence," it works best when combined with other forms of identification. In this case, The Blaze is asking us to accept a single analyst's interpretation of video footage—footage that, according to their own reporting, may have been manipulated by the FBI to reduce frame rates.

But none of this is a direct refutation, and I hear several big dogs that aren't barking here. First, we've got to consider that Shauni Rae Kerkhoff is the quintessential ordinary person-on-the-street who's suddenly subject to major allegations. Let's take a hypothetical example: "John Bruce, a quietly retired Los Angeles computer engineer, was identified yesterday as the hit man who took out Jimmy Hoffa on July 30, 1975, after Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan."

My reaction, like just about anyone in that situation, would be to hire an attorney who would immediately hold a press conference demanding a retraction and apology and file a defamation suit. This is essentially what Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard who was wrongly alleged to have planted the Centennial Olympc Park pipe bomb, did. So far, there has been no equivalent reaction from Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, and the longer we go without one, the hinkier this looks. An X user here pops the obvious question to Steve Baker, one of the Blaze reporters:

Aren’t you jumping the gun? She’s going to sue if you’re wrong.

— Tufty Thesinger (@Plutois9th) November 8, 2025

His answer: What gun did I jump?

Second, I worked much of my career in classified environments, and even if they weren't formally designated as such, they nearly always involved highly sensitive corporate IT information. The uniform reply people are trained to give when contacted by the press over any such matter is to say that they "can neither confirm nor deny". The various agencies contacted about Kerkhoff have either declined to comment, or in the case of Ed Martin, stated only that the DOJ had not identifiied Kerkhoff, presumably meaning it had not done so in any public way. This didn't mean that no other agency had identified Kerkhoff, or that Kerkhoff wasn't under investigation.

Third, the Blaze story identifies other areas where the allegations against Kerkhoff seem to fit previously unexplained parts of the existing narrative, such as the peculiar dead end involving a Washington Metro card:

Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin realized Friday that he was doing surveillance next door to the woman now suspected of being the Jan. 6 pipe bomber.

“The FBI put us one door away from the pipe bomber within days of January 6, and we were deliberately pulled away for no logical or logically investigative reason,” Seraphin told Blaze News Friday. “And everything about that tells me that they were involved in a cover-up and have been since day one.

. . . Seraphin’s team spent two days watching the man, but Seraphin’s request to go face-to-face with the person of interest was denied. The team was pulled off the case the same night, he said.

. . . The FBI tied a DC Metrorail SmarTrip card allegedly used by the pipe-bomb suspect to an Air Force civilian employee but determined that while the man purchased the card, he did not use it. The suspect allegedly used the card to travel from D.C. to a stop in Falls Church after planting the pipe bombs. The Air Force civilian employee had purchased the SmarTrip card a year earlier.

In other words, Kerkhoff's nezt door neighbor gave her a Metro card he'd purchased but never used that she then used to travel to Capitol Hill to plant the bombs -- but the FBI pulled their guys off the case.

Fourth, the gait analysis had to have been done because there was a tip. The Blaze reporters didn't just randomly run the gait analysis on thousands upon thousands of people, finally shouting "Eureka!" when a random hit showed up. Somebody on the inside must have said something like, "Now, I never told you this, but you might find it interesting to look at a Capitol Police officer named. . ." The Blaze reporters then said, "Hmm, how can we prove this?" and came up with gait analysis, after they somehow got the masters of the FBI surveillance footage the FBI had never released. My guess is there was an FBI insider involved.

This is all coming out during what is effectively a four-day holiday weekend, and as I've pointed out, ever since Columbus Day, everyone who's anyone has been winding down for the holiday season that lasts from Thanksgiving to MLK's birthday. We'll have to see what else falls out.