The Biggest Mystery Of January 6 Remains Unsolved

It is the biggest remaining mystery of the January 6 attack. 

On the night before that dark day in early 2021, when over a thousand supporters of former President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol after he urged them to march on the building, a hooded and masked figure went on their own lone patrol outside the halls of Congress. 

According to multiple law enforcement agencies, the person walked for several blocks as they planted a pair of pipe bombs at the headquarters of both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. While the explosive devices were identified and removed without incident, they were a live threat: the FBI later described them as “viable” and dangerous. At one point, then-vice president-elect Kamala Harris passed within 20 feet of one of the two devices. 

Despite a $490,000 reward, the suspect has not been identified nearly four years later. 

For people who live in the corner of D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood that  was the site of the bomb scare, the mystery is personal. It’s an intimate, direct distillation of the fears many other Americans are feeling in an election year where Trump has returned, still refuses to accept his past defeat, is rumbling about fighting another one, and has suggested that, even if he wins, he will launch a campaign of retribution against his rivals. 

TPM has, over the last several months, reached out to dozens of people who live along the approximately ten blocks covered by the suspect to learn about their view of the incident, the investigation, and the coming election. In conversations over the phone and at their doorsteps, many of the residents described their frustrations about the lack of progress in the pipe bomb case as well as their worries about the approach of another potentially contentious electoral certification at the Capitol.

“I’m just expecting it to all come again in some kind of version and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s like a bad dream,” one man told TPM as he sat on his stoop earlier this month. 

Citing concerns for their privacy and safety, most of the residents who discussed their experiences with TPM, including this man, requested anonymity. 

For these D.C. locals, the nightmare meant simultaneously watching a violent mob at the Capitol building a few blocks from their home as the bomb squad deployed on their street. Police, who found the explosive devices just as the crowds converged, asked some residents to shelter in their houses. The man who spoke with TPM from his stoop described seeing the bomb disposal unit parked just a few feet away. The pipe bombs, which at that point had made the news broadcasts, were presumably being held inside, and he “ran around to open all the windows in front and back of the house to make sure if there was a pressure wave it wouldn’t do much damage.”  

With the Capitol attack unfolding just down the street, the bomb was just one of his concerns. The man kept watch on his back porch, which he felt was his home’s “most vulnerable spot.”

“I am not a weapons owner. The sturdiest thing I have in my house was a 34-ounce bat,” he said. “That’s what I carried around with me hoping that I wouldn’t ever have to use it to hit anything other than baseballs again.”

The fact the bombing suspect has not been apprehended has added to the nagging and lingering stress for many in the neighborhood. 

“I walk my dogs and in the parks around here. Obviously, if someone’s planting pipe bombs, that’s a little worrisome,” Chad Gosselink, a political strategist who lives along the bombing suspect’s route, told TPM in a phone conversation. “The message it sends is you can do something like this and there are no ramifications for doing it.”

Residents of the area traversed by the suspect described an initial flurry of activity in the case. Almost everyone who spoke with us said they had been interviewed by FBI agents who combed the neighborhood as part of what the bureau has described as “thousands of hours” of time spent on the case. That work included compiling security footage from residents who had it. 

“They walked around and anyone that they could see that had cameras … they would come knock,” Gosselink said, adding, . … “I think they knocked on every door.”

That first burst of law enforcement activity was followed by a silence that has grown more fraught with time. As part of its investigation, the FBI in September 2021 released footage of the suspect along with a map of the route the person took through the streets of Capitol Hill as they allegedly placed the bombs. Since then, apart from statements made around the anniversaries of the incident, the bureau has given little information about the status of the case. 

“I have zero updates and I think the last time I heard from the FBI was probably two months after January 6th,” Gosselink said.

Other residents expressed consternation that the FBI hadn’t been in touch more, or more quickly. One neighbor whose home was located on the bombing suspect’s path told TPM she did not hear from investigators until “about six months after” January 6. 

“The fact that it took that long for an FBI guy to knock on my door three blocks away from the Capitol tells me how they don’t know what they’re doing,” said the neighbor. “It’s slightly disconcerting.”

Those fears and frustrations are all being amplified amid the backdrop of another contentious presidential campaign. 

“The dude was in front of my house. You should have been fingerprinting everything. What took so long? This is not rocket science,” the neighbor said. “I kind of think the FBI did not do their job. I’m a little worried that they did not, because I’m worried about the next election.”

In a statement to TPM, Lira Gallagher, the Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist for the bureau’s Washington Field Office, described the investigation as “active and ongoing.” 

“While it may appear that no overt law enforcement action is being taken on some tips that have been submitted, tipsters should rest assured that the FBI is working diligently behind the scenes to follow all investigative leads to verify tips from the public,” she said. 

Gallagher also encouraged people to view the route map, videos, and other information they have released thus far. 

“We continue to ask members of the public to view the photos, videos, and other information on our website,” Gallagher said while offering a link to submit tips. 

The bombing suspect’s path covered a stretch of Washington that exemplifies the city’s unique blend of influence, intrigue, and more mundane urban life. It’s a quiet, mostly residential area studded with parks; it also lies directly in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol dome. One of the streets the would-be bomber crossed has a police checkpoint at the end of a row of homes. The route taken by the suspect, as outlined by the FBI, touched on the grounds of the Capitol. 

This proximity to Congress means the stately row houses and elegant apartments that the bombing suspect walked past are filled with unusually high-powered denizens. The tree-lined blocks in question are also home to multiple current and former members of Congress, campaign strategists, Capitol Hill staffers, media figures, a tech company founder, the headquarters of several lobbying organizations, and something called the “Exxon Embassy.” Lanyards and credentials hang from the necks of passersby who rush through the otherwise quiet streets at the end of standard work hours. A few buildings in the area feature mysteriously blacked-out windows and keycard entry systems. 

The DNC and RNC are located approximately a quarter mile away from each other in this mix of official, quasi-official, and simply residential Washington. Spokespeople for both of the party committees did not respond to requests for comment on this story. 

Since the bomb scare, the DNC has installed new fortifications. Several of the residents told TPM they have also stepped up their home security measures. 

One woman described the experience of sheltering in place with her two young twins as the bomb squad worked outside their home as “horrifying.” Her family had “even considered moving” after the pipe bomb incident and the chaos of January 6. 

“We want answers still, and it’s still very unsettling. We’ve had a whole new security system for the front and back of our house. So have many of our neighbors,” she said, adding, “This all just happened after January 6. We felt like nothing was being done about this and we were not getting any updates. No one after that first week followed up … and then that was it.” 

Along with revealing their fears and the steps taken to alleviate them, conversations with the neighbors who live near the pipe bomb scare shed some light on things that have — and have not — been part of the official FBI investigation. Residents said the FBI did not ask about a vehicle or indicate they had any information about how the suspect came into the neighborhood. 

The route map released by the FBI in an effort to solicit public tips also includes no information about how the suspect may have arrived in the area. It begins roughly three blocks from the DNC. From there, the bureau’s map does not describe how the would-be bomber went from circling the DNC to the nearby RNC headquarters. The map has a gap of about eight minutes, during which period the suspect apparently moved the approximately three blocks between the two buildings. 

One thing the FBI agents did inquire about is a dog walker who was filmed passing the suspect. It was one of the only close interactions caught in the camera footage of the suspect moving through the quiet nighttime streets. Multiple residents said the agents showed pictures of this unidentified dog walker, and were seeking to get in touch with the person in the hope that they caught a solid glimpse of the suspect. 

“We received multiple visits from the FBI,” said a woman who talked to TPM along with her husband in front of their home. “They had a video of someone walking a dog that they think crossed paths with them. They were trying to identify that person.”

It is unclear whether the FBI was able to find the dog walker. 

The husband and wife also told TPM the FBI agents asked them questions that suggested agents had access to cell phone data that helped them track people who were in the neighborhood during the time the bombs were placed. The husband got the impression that the suspect either did not have a phone, or took measures to avoid it being tracked. 

“If they had a phone it was offline,” the husband said of the suspect.

That theory tracks with the limited information that has emerged about the case, which also includes another potential explanation for the FBI’s inability to zero in on the suspect’s phone. 

In June 2023, Steven D’Antuono, the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, who initially oversaw the pipe bomb investigation, conducted a transcribed interview about the case with the House Judiciary Committee. 

In his testimony, D’Antunono described how the FBI had obtained “a lot of phone data.” However, he noted that information from one major service provider was “corrupted,” which may have helped the suspect avoid being tracked in this manner.

“We have corrupt data from one of the providers … which is awful because we don’t have that information to search. So could it have been that provider? Yeah, with our luck, you know, with this investigation it probably was,” D’Antuono said, adding, “It wasn’t purposely corrupted. I don’t want any conspiracy theories … But that could have been good information that we don’t have, right? So that is painful for us to not have that.”

D’Antuono also noted that though footage of the suspect seems to show them using a phone, it is unknown whether they actually had one. 

“It looks like a phone. Was it a real phone … Was it a ruse? … Was the person just sitting there trying to pretend like they’re on a bench taking a phone call? We don’t know until we find the person, right, and ask them those questions,” D’Antuono said. 

D’Antuono, who did not respond to requests for comment from TPM, also suggested that, at the time he left, the FBI knew little about the suspect and that there was “no intelligence” about their motive.

“We don’t even know the gender at this point,” D’Antuono said. 

In this information vacuum, some of the Capitol Hill residents described undertaking their own efforts to piece together what happened. In conversations and group chats, they have endlessly dissected the sparse public information about the case. Multiple neighbors told TPM they have extensively perused the footage and settled on a theory that the suspect is a woman.

“Men typically don’t carry bags like that. … They’re small feet too,” Chad Gosselink said, referring to the suspect’s Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes. 

The mother who debated moving from the area also said there is a consensus among the neighbors that the bomber is female. 

“We saw the footage a million times,” she said. “We always talked about it and we think it’s actually a woman. That’s our theory, all the neighbors.”

Along with the residents’ amateur and informal efforts to crack the case, the pipe bomb mystery has inspired fact-finding missions with more partisan concerns.

The wave of political violence that crashed over Capitol Hill on January 6 has only become more politicized in the aftermath of the attack. While Democrats have pointed to Trump and his allies for their role planting false narratives about his loss, planning protests in Washington based on those lies, and encouraging the crowd to converge on the Capitol, Republicans have countered with conspiracy theories and even lobbed thoroughly debunked claims that the FBI and other agencies played a role in the chaos. 

Amid this effort to deflect blame from Trump, some in the GOP have also sought to dissect the law enforcement response to the violence. The interview where D’Antuono, the former head of the FBI Washington Field Office, discussed the cell phone records and the bureau’s handling of the pipe bomb case was part of inquiries into the investigation led by Republicans in the House Administration and Judiciary committees. In related hearings, some of these GOP members have expressed frustration with the FBI’s handling of the investigation, lack of public updates, and refusal to appear before their committees. 

Democrats have countered that, while they believe it could be worth examining the investigation’s progress, they fear their Republican colleagues are only doing so as part of the broader effort to muddy the waters surrounding January 6. 

During a March 12 House Administration subcommittee hearing on the pipe bombs, Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) suggested that, if Republicans were “serious” about this investigation, they would not have supported deep funding cuts to the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies. 

“I was in the House gallery when the Capitol was breached,” Torres said. “It is imperative that all who committed criminal acts that day be held accountable for their actions, including and especially whoever placed pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC. 

“Yet we must remember that this isn’t an episode of ‘CSI’ or ‘Law and Order.’ We don’t get to write our own ending according to what may or may not be convenient for our politics. It’s frustrating, and I agree 100 percent, but all critical and sensitive investigations take time.”

“Law enforcement has spent thousands of man hours investigating this crime and I have faith that they’ll continue to do so until the perpetrator is brought to justice,” she said later, adding, “This committee should not be used as a platform to feed into internet conspiracy theorists.”

TPM reached out to three different Republicans involved in the push to investigate the pipe bomb investigation and received no responses. 

Some of the residents on the blocks where the bomb scare played out also have differing opinions about the chaos that accompanied the last election. 

One woman who spoke to TPM at her home said she believed that January 6 “got blown out of way more than what it should be.”

“I thought about it and I was like I could have easily been there because … I walk over and look at stuff that’s going on when there’s demonstrations, so I was like, wow, I could have gotten in a lot of trouble just being nosy,” she said.

The woman also said she is not “super concerned” about the lack of a resolution in the pipe bombing case. 

The husband who discussed the FBI’s use of cell phone data with TPM outside of his home was similarly sanguine. While his wife said she was “worried about the election,” he was unfazed. 

“This is life,” he said. “I could drop dead tomorrow.”

Jon Porter, a former Republican congressman from Nevada who lives on one of the blocks passed by the pipe bomb suspect, offered a similar perspective when he spoke to TPM on the phone earlier this month. 

“Living near the Capitol, I still consider it one of the safest places in D.C. because of the constant surveillance. … I certainly am concerned about safety all the time … but it’s not heightened because of this circumstance,” Porter said. “To be honest with you, I haven’t thought about it because there’s so many crises every day. It’s like, what’s next? So I haven’t thought about what had happened to that person.”

Porter runs a government affairs and business consulting firm, which was also headquartered on the same block. He was not there on January 6, but had a family member living in his home. Porter said they were interviewed by the FBI.

As a former House member, Porter still regularly visits the Capitol, and said the violence of January 6 left him with “many emotions.” Like so many of his neighbors, he also said he has been left with lingering questions. 

“I’m still in there frequently. I’m honored to be able to go in. We have a lot of problems around the world, but it’s still the best nation in the world,” Porter said. “I felt like it was a desecration and there’s a lot of good people there trying to do the right thing for the right reasons and serving the country. But I also was wondering about security steps — how it could happen. I always know that the Capitol’s one of the safest places, but one of the most targeted places in the world. But I always was wondering still to this day as I go into the Capitol, how that could happen?” 

For the man who described January 6 as a “bad dream” that left him wielding a bat on his own back porch, there is one clear answer: Donald Trump. The man cited the former president’s continued refusal to accept his 2020 loss as a driver of the violence. And he pointed to current signs Trump might dispute the next vote as reasons the fear has not gone away.

“It was scary as hell and it is scary again to think of the possibility of further violence with all the continuing denials of even the results of that election and the setting up the denial structure for this one on the part of ex-President Trump,” the man said, adding, “May he always be ex-President Trump.” 

In this fraught political moment, living in the potential blast radius left this Capitol Hill resident disturbed and confused. 

“This is my home. It’s just an odd time to live in. I’m genuinely apprehensive and I’ve never felt that way,” the man said. “This kind of violence is eerie because it emerges from such a swamp of hatred and weird psychology that I don’t understand.”