Why is the FBI Stonewalling Congress About the January 6 'Pipe Bombs'?

Katie Pavlich | May 25, 2023 12:00 PM

After an FBI agent revealed a pair of pipe bombs left in the dead of night outside of the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee on January 5, 2021 were inoperable and did not pose a threat, Republicans on Capitol Hill are demanding answers about who put them there, why the FBI's official statement claimed they were operable and why a suspect has yet to be arrested for planting them more than two years later.

“The slow progression of the FBI’s investigation into the January 6 pipe bombs raises significant concerns about the FBI’s prioritization of that case in relation to other January 6 investigations. Accordingly, we reiterate our outstanding requests for a briefing on the status of the pipe bomb investigation and request that you provide this briefing as soon as possible, but no later than June 7, 2023," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Chairman Andy Biggs and Congressman Bill Posey wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

"The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the programs and operations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As part of our oversight obligations, 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 letter continues.

"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," the lawmakers explained. "Specifically, the whistleblower disclosure revealed that the Washington Field Office asked FBI field offices to canvass all confidential human sources nationwide for information about the individual and the crime over a year after the placement of the bombs, and requested that the canvass ‘include sources reporting on all [types of] threats’ because the suspect’s ‘motive and ideology remain unknown.'"