In recent weeks, the already damaged reputation of the FBI has become further impacted by testimony from a collection of whistleblowers exposing the issues experienced within the Bureau. All you need to see as far as their validity is how the press has pulled a 180 in regard to those exposing internal problems. In the past, when Alexander Vindman or Rebekah Jones were challenged by their entities, the media defended them ardently. Today? The people exposing FBI malfeasance are said by the media to not be valid whistleblowers…according to the Bureau.
Another hit to the character of the FBI is revealed in a letter from the House Judiciary Committee to Director Christopher Wray. Penned by Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Bill Posey, they request that the committee be filled in on details specific to the investigation of the Capitol Hill pipe bombs located at the RNC and DNC headquarters in D.C. on the night before the January 6 riot. As Katie Pavlich wrote, there have been a number of requests made to Wray to attend briefings on this matter. He has, to date, rebuffed all requests:
We wrote to you on March 9, 2022, requesting a briefing about the status of the FBI's investigation into the pipe bombs placed near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on January 5, 2021. At the start of the 118th Congress, on January 17, 2023, we reiterated this request. To date, you have failed to comply. The Committee requested the briefing after we received a whistleblower disclosure from a senior FBI official that raised questions and concerns about the 'unusual' nature of the FBI’s investigative efforts and due to the FBI's failure to adequately respond to Rep. Bill Posey's September 2, 2021 request for a briefing on the investigation.
So, this is three times that Wray has steadfastly refused to attend briefings regarding this particular matter, predating the whistleblower revelations. But there has been more in this letter to raise serious concerns. The whistleblowers' indication that there were "unusual" investigative efforts points to the call from the D.C. location to all field offices across the country "to canvass all confidential human sources nationwide."
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This hardly appears to be a targeted investigation when all offices are asked to question all sources to find…something. This request was put out a year after the pipe bombs were located. By appearances, this seems to be a face-saving move so that an indication of an investigation could be shown. But there is an even more questionable detail shown in the House letter.
Consider how all the J-6 defendants have been rounded up and sent to trial. Cell phone tracking, CCTV footage, and even crowd-sourced online investigations have been used to gather up hundreds of defendants. There are photos and numerous videos of the pipe bomb suspect, but there appear to be extremely detailed findings as well:
Your failure to comply with our request is particularly concerning given recent media reports regarding the pipe bomb investigation. According to at least one report from a former FBI agent who worked on the investigation, the FBI linked the suspected pipe bomber to a MetroRail SmarTrip Card that the subject used to travel through the Washington Metro system to a stop in Northern Virginia.
And the letter indicated the Bureau has even more than that:
The FBI used security camera footage from the Northern Virginia Metro stop to identify the license plate of a car that the individual entered. Still, the FBI has not identified the subject. One former FBI assistant director observed, '[i]t just doesn't add up . . . [t]here's just too much to work with to not know who this guy is.'
On top of this established information that has led to nothing, there are also conflicting reports on the bombs themselves. The FBI has stated the pipe bombs were live and could have detonated, but a now-retired against who worked the case has stated that both devices found were inoperable.
There is quite a lot at play here that only leads to questions. The most revealing thing to come out of the FBI regarding this case is how Christopher Wray refuses to show up to provide any answers.
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