The FBI on Tuesday released new video of the person suspected to have planted two pipe bombs, one each near the Democratic and Republican national committee headquarters, the night before the Capitol attack.
Months after the Capitol attack, the would-be pipe bomber remains at large, despite a significant investigatory effort on the part of federal law enforcement. The bombs did not detonate and were discovered on Jan. 6, but authorities have said they were viable.
The FBI released some initial security camera video of the pipe bomb suspect in late January.
“We still believe there is someone out there who has information they may not have realized was significant until now,” Steven M. D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said in a statement accompanying the release.
“We know it can be a difficult decision to report information about family or friends – but this is about protecting human life,” D’Antuono said. “These pipe bombs were viable devices that could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death. We need the public’s help to identify the individual responsible for placing these pipe bombs to ensure they will not harm themselves or anyone else.”
In a statement, the FBI’s Washington Field Office noted “this person may have entered a vehicle or taken an item from a vehicle and placed it into the backpack.”
The video clips released Tuesday include footage of the suspect before and after placing the bombs — walking down South Capitol Street, unloading something from his backpack while seated on a park bench outside of the DNC, walking down an alley between the RNC and the Capitol Hill Club, and walking past the entrance of the Capitol Hill Club.
In a separate video, D’Antuono spelled out what sort of information might be useful for investigators:
Lauren Boebert?
Wearing a covid mask without an insult?
Nah, she would have driven. And expensed the mileage.
They have the times and locations, and some of those look pretty abandoned…I wonder if they haven’t been able to triangulate a cellphone position in some of those areas. That would be the first thing I’d try, see what cellphones were in or around the areas in the videos at those times and try to track them. They may have been smart enough not to take their phone with them though, but it could lead to a witness who might have seen them get into a car or go into a building.
Whoever this is, they need to find them and determine exactly how they were involved in the events on Jan 6th…it was just too convenient that the pipe bombs were found when they were found. I guess it’s possible that it was luck and they managed to locate them before they detonated. In either case, they were somehow linked to what was going on, and anyone planting bombs to help with an insurrection needs to be brought to justice.
It may come down to a lower-tech solution in which somebody who knows this guy saw him that day in that outfit. Always was a big talker, never dreamed he’d actually do something like this, etc. etc. A lot of these knuckleheads are getting turned in by people they know.