FBI still looking for person who planted pipe bombs ahead of Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Washington — The person who investigators say left two pipe bombs exterior the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican events in Washington, D.C., the evening earlier than the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault remains to be on the free, and the FBI is providing a $500,000 reward for data that results in the arrest of the individual accountable. 

The unsolved thriller continues to elude investigators three years later, even amid a public marketing campaign offering detailed maps, safety digital camera video and probably figuring out data. Investigators made public over two years in the past footage displaying the suspect strolling by the Capitol Hill neighborhood across the time that the gadgets have been believed to have been positioned and revealed photographs of the gadgets and photographs and descriptions of a number of the attire the individual was sporting. 

The FBI says that the unknown particular person wore Nike Air Max Pace turf sneakers, a face masks, glasses and gloves and a grey hooded sweatshirt.

The pipe bombs didn’t detonate, however the FBI has mentioned they have been “viable” and posed a hazard to the general public. 

Round 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, as Capitol rioters started to breach police barricades across the outer perimeter of the U.S. Capitol, authorities mentioned, the 2 pipe bombs have been discovered by a passerby on the DNC and RNC headquarters. Each of the buildings are simply a few blocks from the Capitol.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the vice president-elect on the time, was evacuated from the Democratic Nationwide Committee headquarters when the gadgets have been recovered. In accordance with a U.S. Capitol Police timeline obtained by CBS Information, the U.S. Secret Service and Capitol Police evacuated a “protectee” at DNC headquarters at 1:14 p.m., minutes after the pipe bomb was found at 1:07 p.m.

The FBI mentioned the bombs have been positioned exterior the RNC and DNC the evening earlier than the assault, between 7:30 p.m. and eight:30 p.m., and in keeping with a report obtained by CBS Information in March 2021, the bombs contained just one methodology of detonation — a 60-minute kitchen timer. The report — which was written by the Nationwide Explosives Job Drive, a multi-agency group that coordinates explosive experience for regulation enforcement and intelligence companies — steered there was no proof of a second or distant detonation methodology, similar to a mobile phone. 

It stays unclear why the pipe bombs didn’t detonate or in the event that they have been meant to in any respect, however regulation enforcement sources advised CBS Information on the time that the gadgets might have been designed to blow up the day earlier than the electoral school certification on the Capitol. 

“Three years into the investigation, figuring out the perpetrator of this tried assault stays a precedence for the FBI, ATF, MPD, and the USCP,” the FBI mentioned in an announcement this week. The pinnacle of the Bureau’s Washington, D.C. discipline workplace mentioned a workforce of brokers and scientists have logged hundreds of hours engaged on the case. 

In an interview with congressional investigators final 12 months, Steven D’Antuono, the previous particular agent in control of the FBI’s Washington discipline division mentioned investigators had performed a close to “full geofence” of the realm in query utilizing cellphone knowledge and had quite a few brokers assigned the case. 

“After I was there for two years it was a excessive precedence, as a lot element as they need, we put each useful resource that we might. We did each examine, each lab check, each knowledge. We ran this by techniques forwards and backwards, up and down, sideways, in every single place,” D’Antuono mentioned, in keeping with a transcript of the closed-door interview. 

–Tim Perry, Michael Kaplan and Nicole Sganga contributed reporting. 

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