The FBI arrested a suspect who investigators think put pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties in Washington, D.C., the night before the Capitol riot in 2021. The case was well-known but still unsolved after almost five years of investigation.
The bombs didn’t go off, but the FBI said they were “viable” and could have hurt or killed people nearby. The suspect was caught on tape wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, face mask, glasses, and gloves. They were carrying the bombs in a backpack.
In January, a congressional panel led by Republicans criticized the FBI for not being able to find the suspect earlier.
The FBI had been to more than 1,200 homes and businesses, conducted more than 1,000 interviews, reviewed about 39,000 video files, and investigated more than 600 tips in the case as of January.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said last month that one of his first goals was to “aggressively pursue a new strategy” to look into the threat.
“There is a massive cover-up because the person who planted those pipe bombs, they don’t want you to know who it was because it’s either a connected anti-Trump insider or this was an inside job,” Bongino said in November 2024.
The pipe bombs were discovered on Jan. 6. The RNC explosive was discovered first.
The DNC device was discovered while then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the building.
The FBI memo that initiated the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation into President Trump and hundreds of his allies over their activities related to January 6 lacked substantial evidence and clear legal justification, according to several former prosecutors and FBI agents who reviewed the newly released document and identified multiple deficiencies.
The investigation, code-named Arctic Frost, was initially led by an FBI supervisor who had expressed anti-Trump sentiments and was later taken over by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The probe treated the effort by Trump’s allies to submit alternate electors to Congress during the 2020 election certification as a potential criminal conspiracy — despite similar actions in two prior instances of U.S. history not resulting in prosecution, Just the News reported.
According to the newly released materials, the FBI memo that launched the investigation in spring 2022 — around the same time Trump announced his bid for the presidency — relied heavily on interview clips from CNN as primary evidence “suggesting” Trump’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy, the outlet added.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said Wednesday that he believes the FBI memo authorizing the Arctic Frost investigation was legally flawed and reflected the same politicization and investigative overreach seen in the 2016 Russia collusion probe, code-named “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Jordan obtained the document from current FBI Director Kash Patel and told Just the News that both investigations targeted Trump based on weak evidence and partisan motives before ultimately being discredited.
Smith has denied any wrongdoing and said he intends to present his side of the story. Jordan has invited Smith to testify before the committee, warning that he will issue a subpoena if Smith declines to appear voluntarily.
Documents released in recent weeks by Patel indicate that the Arctic Frost investigation was approved at the highest levels of the Biden administration, including by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, with assistance from a lawyer in the White House.
The inquiry centered on efforts by Republican officials in several states to submit alternate slates of electors ahead of Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021.
The probe was later transferred from the FBI to Smith’s office, which issued subpoenas to hundreds of Trump allies.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday released 197 subpoenas that Smith and his Justice Department team issued “as part of the indiscriminate election case against President Trump,” identifying more than 400 Republican groups and individuals whose information was sought.
