Pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole's defense hits prosecutors with unexpected demands after feds pile on more charges



Brian Cole Jr., the FBI's suspect in the Jan. 5 to 6, 2021, pipe-bomb case, appeared before a federal judge on April 22 and pleaded not guilty to the two additional felony charges filed against him in a second superseding indictment.

Federal authorities arrested Cole in December, accusing him of planting two pipe bombs, one outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters and one outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, in the hours leading up to the Jan 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol. The bombs did not detonate.

A 'real mic-drop' moment.

A second superseding indictment, filed Apr. 14, included the original charges of interstate transportation of explosives and a malicious attempt to use explosives. It also added two additional charges: an attempt to use weapons of mass destruction and an act of terrorism while armed. If found guilty of these new charges, Cole could face a sentence of life in prison.

The status hearing last week included an arraignment for the additional charges, to which Cole pleaded not guilty.

Cole's defense team requested early in the hearing to discuss setting a trial date, suggesting early December, according to the hearing's transcript obtained by Blaze News.

Prosecutors proposed holding another status hearing before setting a trial date, explaining that they were not yet prepared to estimate how long the trial would take, particularly with the additional charges.

Cara Castronuova, a reporter with LindellTV, called the defense's request a "real mic-drop" moment.

"I think that really surprised the prosecution. Their mouths sort of fell open. A lot of the FBI agents and the DOJ that were sitting there watching sort of looked at each other in disbelief," Castronuova stated.

RELATED: Brian Cole Jr.’s physical presence, posture, mannerisms are no match to FBI's hoodie-clad pipe-bomb suspect

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

"I don't think that they expected that. I think that they added all of these new charges sort of hoping that this young man, Brian Cole Jr. … would be scared and plea out."

The attorneys for both sides provided the judge with an update on the discovery process.

Prosecutors stated that they had obtained "over a terabyte of data" and that they were still gathering additional information, including witness interview materials.

Cole's attorney, Alex Little with Litson PLLC, said the defense intended to subpoena Congress for Jan. 6 committee records. Little explained to the judge that they had plans to review lawmakers' investigation into the pipe bomber, stating that he believes that they may "have materials that we think would be useful."

The defense also shared potential plans to present "a third-party perpetrator defense" and indicated that they want to "rebut potential alibis of that third party."

During the hearing, the attorneys and judge also discussed the controversy surrounding a recent motion filed by the defense team.

Cole's legal team previously filed a motion on Apr. 1 claiming that former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff was "named as a person of interest in the January 5–6, 2021 pipe bomb investigation." The court filing claimed Kerkhoff was subjected to an FBI polygraph examination and that she "failed" after she was asked, "Did you place those pipe bombs?" and "Did you place those pipe bombs that evening?" Cole's attorneys further noted that the polygraph examiner called Kerkhoff's responses "seemingly rehearsed."

Kerkhoff has been officially cleared by the FBI and is no longer a suspect in the case.

Federal prosecutors argued that the motion violated the case's protective order, which set guidelines for handling confidential and sensitive discovery materials, including identifying information. Prosecutors requested that the judge hold Cole's attorneys in contempt for the public filing.

RELATED: Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff files lawsuit against Blaze Media

Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Cole's defense team asserted that the motion did not violate the protective order in the case, stating that they "were surprised" the government believed it did.

"Your Honor, they immediately jumped to ask to hold me in contempt," Little stated.

"I find it important to make this record for the court. There was nothing in that protective order that we believed are satisfied by the things we put in that motion. We wouldn't have filed them. That's not the way we do things."

He expressed regret and referred to as a "mistake" that the motion contained an individual's home address. He noted that the address should have been removed.

Cole's attorney stated that other than that one instance, prosecutors did not specify any other personally identifiable information in the motion. He claimed that prosecutors were unnecessarily labeling discovery materials as sensitive, including "photographs of shoes that you can get on the web."

"I think the difficulty is when we have now two terabytes, three terabytes of discovery, do I need to show the government a draft of each of my motions to decide whether the information" could be submitted in a public court filing, Little stated, adding that prosecutors had made "half" of the discovery material "sensitive."

Prosecutors argued that the defense's "gambit worked," stating that the public motion "went everywhere" and was "covered by the media."

"The damage was done," a federal attorney told the judge.

Little stated that they "immediately" moved to get the motion "under seal" after being notified by prosecutors that the address was in the public motion.

The defense withdrew the motion, which removed it from the public docket, and filed it under seal. Cole's team then requested that the motion be unsealed with redactions.

The judge ordered counsel to confer and come back to the court with "a proposed redacted version" of the defense's motion.

Castronuova highlighted a moment when the judge reportedly "just started yelling" at the defense attorneys.

"He went from zero to 10 out of nowhere on the defense," she continued. "No one really understood why. He just got angry at something they said and just started reprimanding them, embarrassing them, and yelling at them in court."

At multiple points throughout the hearing, the judge told the defense to "stop talking," according to the transcript.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reacted to updates from the status hearing last week, suggesting that the defense "put the plainclothes Capitol Police officers who 'found' the second bomb on the stand."

Massie urged them to ask, "Why didn't you immediately begin looking for a third bomb?" "Who told you to go to that area and look for it?" and "Why was the bomb not immediately dealt with?"

"And a new question: why did you look so intently under the empty bush where the pipe bomber dwelled for so long the night before?" Massie continued.

"This trial could get interesting."

Cole's defense team declined to comment. He is scheduled to appear back in court on May 29 for another status hearing.

On Friday, Cole's defense team submitted a motion further arguing for the dismissal of the case due to a lack of jurisdiction. His attorneys previously contended that President Donald Trump's broad pardons related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, which applied to "individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol," should also cover Cole's case.

The government rejected the argument, stating that Cole had no pending indictment at the time the presidential proclamation was issued on Jan. 20, 2025. Prosecutors also asserted that the pipe bombs were placed on Jan. 5, 2021, and therefore were not related to the protest on Jan. 6.

Cole's lawyers responded to the government's arguments by stating that "a strict time limit does not exist in the text of" the president's pardon and, therefore, should not be inferred from it. They claimed it was "an on-going directive." They also reasoned that the timing and proximity of the pipe-bomb incident to the Jan. 6 protest indicate a connection.

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Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff files lawsuit against Blaze Media



Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday against Blaze Media, former employees Steve Baker and Joseph Hanneman, and Baker and Hanneman's new online publication, Veritas Regnat, for their reporting on the Jan. 5 to Jan. 6, 2021, pipe-bomb incident in Washington, D.C.

For nearly five years, federal authorities had been unable to identify the masked individual who placed one pipe bomb outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters and another outside the Republican National Committee headquarters the evening before the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol. The devices did not detonate, and there were no injuries reported.

The lawsuit cites a November 8, 2025, Blaze News article that named Kerkhoff as a "forensic match," based on gait analysis, to the bombing suspect. In December, the Department of Justice announced that the suspect had been identified as another person, Brian Cole Jr., from Woodbridge, Virginia. Blaze News retracted the article shortly after Cole's arrest.

The complaint alleges that Kerkhoff, represented by the Alexandria-based defamation law firm Clare Locke, was "ultimately exonerated" and that the defendants' "false and defamatory accusations have irreparably changed her life." It further alleges that Blaze News' investigation "induced the FBI to open an investigation of Ms. Kerkhoff."

"They then cited that investigation — which their own actions had caused — as independent corroboration of their accusation," according to the complaint.

An April 1 motion filed by Cole's attorneys claimed that Kerkhoff was "interviewed by the FBI and took a polygraph examination" on Nov. 6, 2025, two days before Blaze News published the article naming Kerkhoff in connection to the pipe-bomb incident.

In her lawsuit, Kerkhoff confirmed that two FBI agents confronted her on Nov. 6, claiming they were "investigating 'online chatter' that she was the pipe bomber." Kerkhoff’s complaint also alleges that her home was subjected to a search, and she participated in a polygraph interview that evening.

While Kerkhoff's complaint does not mention the results of her polygraph, Cole's motion — which stated that she was asked two relevant questions, "Did you place those pipe bombs?" and "Did you place those pipe bombs that evening?" — asserted that she failed the examination. It also claimed that the polygraph examiner “noted” that Kerkhoff's answers seemed "rehearsed." Cole's attorneys stated that the FBI named Kerkhoff "as a person of interest" on Nov. 7, a day before Blaze News' article was released.

“Blaze News initially reported, as confirmed by official intelligence sources, that based on a forensic gait analysis, Ms. Kerkhoff was a 94% match to the suspected pipe bomber. That report was retracted when the FBI arrested and DOJ charged another individual, who had reportedly confessed to the crime. According to recent court filings by that individual's legal counsel, Ms. Kerkhoff was a person of interest under surveillance by the FBI and failed a polygraph test administered two days before Blaze Media's article was published,” Michael Grygiel, attorney for Blaze Media, told Blaze News in a statement.

“Blaze Media will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit challenging its valid news reporting on a matter of legitimate public concern, which is protected under the First Amendment and Virginia’s anti-SLAPP law.”

Kerkhoff's complaint alleges six counts of defamation against the defendants, including four against Blaze Media. She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages to be determined at trial.

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Nearly Five Years Later, FBI Makes Arrest In DC Pipe Bomb Case

The FBI made an arrest early Thursday morning in the five-year-old Washington, D.C., pipe bomb case. Authorities arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. and accused him of planting two live bombs on Jan. 5, 2021 — one near in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the other near the headquarters […]

Jonathan Turley Flags ‘Fascinating Aspect’ From Feds’ Announcement About J6 Pipe Bomber Suspect

'They pledged they were going to run this guy down'

Massie: FBI threatened his staff if he didn’t ‘play ball’ over pipe-bomb investigation



Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said an FBI official threatened to open a criminal investigation on one of his staff over his persistent investigation and questioning on the Jan. 6 pipe bombs.

An FBI official threatened to open a criminal investigation on one of Massie’s staff “if we didn’t straighten up [and] play ball,” Massie told Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker in an interview broadcast on Matt Kibbe’s “Free the People” podcast and posted to X.

‘Even he understood that was not a good look. Probably illegal.’

“I’m going to say this here on camera because it’s important. ... He said ... ‘We’re going to investigate one of your staff for fraud,’” Massie quoted the unnamed FBI official as saying. “And he told another one of my staff this: ‘If you guys don’t straighten up, you know, if you want to play hardball, if this is how you want to play it’ or something like that, ‘this member of your staff is going to get criminally investigated for fraud’ — a very specific threat.”

Massie declined to identify the official he says levied the threat, but said he did complain about it to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

“I told Bongino, I said, ‘One of your guys is threatening my guys with an FBI investigation if we don’t do what you want.’ And he [Bongino] said, ‘I’ll take care of that.’ ’Cause even he understood that was not a good look. Probably illegal.”

Massie said he later received a “non-apology” text from the official that said, “‘I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.’”

“He didn’t apologize. He was unrepentant, let's say, really.”

Massie has been the most aggressive member of Congress investigating the pipe bombs found behind the Capitol Hill Club at 12:43 p.m. on Jan. 6 and under a park bench on the southwest side of the Democratic National Committee building 22 minutes later. In the same interview with Baker, Massie also disclosed that recent Blaze News reporting has caused him to be “99% certain” that some U.S. Capitol Police officials had a role in the planting of the pipe bombs found on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I went from 90% certain that some Capitol Police were involved in the Jan. 6 pipe bomb to 95% certain, and now I'm at 99% certain after this new story that you put out this week,” Massie told Baker.

“I’m doing this on probability. The probability may even be higher than that.”

His comments reflect Blaze News’ recent reporting on a former Capitol Police officer who was an apparent forensic match to the bomb suspect, follow-up reporting on the manner in which the second device was discovered by plainclothes Capitol Police officers, and the stonewalling the congressman charges that he faced from Capitol Police in the course of his own investigation. Assistant Police Chief Ashan Benedict, whom Massie named as having specifically blocked his investigation, retired last week.

The Kentucky Republican also expressed frustration that FBI Director Kash Patel seems to have made little more progress than his predecessor, Director Christopher Wray. In an interview with Fox News earlier this month, as well as a follow-up with independent reporter Catherine Herridge, Patel promised that major developments are incoming, but was scant on details.

A CBS story published Tuesday cited three unidentified sources stating that the FBI had cleared the police officer who appeared to match a forensic gait analysis of the bomber, citing “an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed.” Blaze News has sought to obtain independent confirmation of the FBI’s clearance based on the alibi.

Blaze News reported Nov. 8 on a forensic match to a former Capitol Police officer, based on a computer analysis of the hoodie-wearing alleged pipe bomber’s manner of walking compared to that of the person. The algorithm rated the person as a 94% match, while the intelligence analyst who ran the study for Blaze News put the match closer to 98%. The person has since denied any allegations, through her attorney.

FBI photos

Blaze News reported Nov. 18 that two Capitol Police counter-surveillance special agents sent out to look for more explosives after the discovery of the Capitol Hill Club device were seen on video going to the DNC building and to a nearby bush on the side of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute building.

Independent video investigator Armitas discovered that the hoodie-wearing suspect identified in 2021 as the pipe bomber stopped at the bush along a sidewalk on the north side of the CBCI building at 7:47 p.m. Jan. 5. The suspect sat cross-legged at the shrub and appeared to rummage through a backpack before leaning into the bush as if attempting to place something underneath.

The bomb suspect then stood up and walked back to the DNC bench, where a pipe bomb was placed at 7:54 p.m., according to choppy video released by the FBI.

‘He had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.’

When Capitol Police dispatch warned of the Capitol Hill Club bomb at 12:43 p.m., two plainclothes Capitol Police special agents took a nearly six-minute drive to reach the Capitol Hill South Metro Station, one block from the Capitol Hill Club bomb scene. They then walked to the DNC building, passing the park bench the pipe bomb sat next to.

The agents continued walking until they reached an alley leading to the side of the CBCI building. Their movements were not captured on video because four Capitol Police security cameras that would have shown the DNC crime scene were turned away at key moments or pointed in another direction by default.

Massie’s office released video in July 2023 showing a man in dark clothing and a ball cap approaching a U.S. Secret Service SUV sitting in the driveway of the DNC building as part of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ security detail. Harris was inside the building when the pipe bomb was discovered.

Blaze News reported in January 2024 that this man was the plainclothes Capitol Police officer who discovered the pipe bomb under a bush at the foot of a park bench at the DNC building.

Following that story, Massie told Blaze News he was determined to interview the agents, but did not get much cooperation from Capitol Police. Massie referred to the agents as “man-bun guy” and “backpack guy” (the one who discovered the bomb).

‘Weirdest meeting’

The Capitol Police never made “backpack guy” available to the Massie, but on Jan. 30, 2024, they did eventually send his partner, accompanied by his commander, Benedict, to speak with the congressman in a meeting that was not recorded or transcribed.

“So they came over to my office, but not ‘backpack guy,’” Massie said. “’Man-bun guy’ came over, and he had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.”

Two congressional investigators sat in on the meeting alongside Benedict, the police officer, and Massie. The congressman later described the interview as the “weirdest meeting in the world.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said an FBI official threatened a criminal investigation of his staff if he didn’t “play ball” on the Jan. 6 pipe bomb investigation.Photo courtesy of Free the People

“In the conversation with the counter-surveillance officer in my office, Ashan Benedict would frequently interrupt the officer, answer before the officer could reply, or qualify the officer’s answers,” Massie told Blaze News. “There was an effort by our committee staff to get Benedict to sit for a transcribed interview, but he successfully evaded that effort.”

Massie said he still wants to interview the officer who actually found the bomb, as well as his partner and Benedict. “Those need to be transcribed interviews. They need to be sworn in. I feel very strongly about that,” he said. “But the reality is the FBI should be doing these things.”

Massie said that after he reposted the Blaze News article on the gait analysis, Bongino called him to complain about two early persons of interest mentioned in the piece.

One of those men, named in FBI reports as Person of Interest 3, lived directly next door to the Capitol Police officer who was the subject of the Nov. 8 Blaze News article. The FBI’s Special Operations Group conducted surveillance on Person of Interest 3 in Falls Church, Va., for two days in January 2021, but surveillance was suddenly canceled, before any law enforcement officer ever questioned the man.

Massie said Bongino told him, “‘That’s a dead lead. … We investigated that lead and … there’s nothing there. There’s no there there.’ So that’s why they quit looking at it. … At that point I said, ‘But you guys weren’t — you never did suspect him. The FBI never did suspect him. … His build doesn’t match. There’s no way it could be him. Your guys were looking for somebody else.’”

Whistleblower concerns

A current FBI supervisory special agent on Nov. 10 filed a whistleblower protected disclosure with Massie and U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), alleging the termination of surveillance at the Falls Church condominium complex was improper and cut off a suggestion by a surveillance team member that Person of Interest 3 be questioned face-to-face at his doorstep.

Person of Interest 3 and Person of Interest 2, his alleged houseguest on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, had not been questioned by the FBI when surveillance was terminated. Interviews took place six days later, according to FBI reports included in the whistleblower disclosure. An FBI agent pretending to be a Metro Transit police officer interviewed Person of Interest 3 over the phone, a congressional source told Blaze News.

The whistleblower’s “concern was that the investigation that went to Falls Church, Virginia, that got them to the doorstep of the person that [Blaze News] identified through gait analysis as possibly somebody that might have been the person in the hood,” Massie said.

“There were suggestions made to the people in charge of the investigation about how to follow up on those leads,” Massie said. “And it was just dropped after two days of surveillance. And he [the whistleblower] provided supporting documents to that effect.”

Capitol Police block off the intersection of 1st and C streets in response to discovery of a pipe bomb at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police

Massie said Bongino made reference to the FBI conducting a meeting to address the whistleblower disclosure. “He didn’t say, ‘We’re trying to find the whistleblower,’” Massie said. “But my Spidey sense went off, and I almost said to him in that moment, ‘You better not be trying to find the whistleblower, because law protects that individual.’ But I didn’t say it.”

Massie said he thought about this when recalling the threat he said his staff received from the FBI official.

“I have to tell all the listeners this because this is the context in which I'm worried for the whistleblower,” Massie said. “If they're willing to retaliate against a congressional office, which has speech or debate immunity and a lot of other protections, they may be willing to retaliate against the whistleblower.”

The whistleblower’s attorney, Kurt Siuzdak, sent a letter to Massie and Loudermilk on Nov. 13, warning that if the FBI attempted to out the whistleblower, it would violate the supervisory agent’s protections under the law. Massie shared the letter on social media.

“Identifying the whistleblower serves only one purpose,” Siuzdak wrote, “which is to allow FBI management to retaliate.”

In a Nov. 13 post on X, Bongino accused Massie of throwing “BS bombs” and denied that the FBI sought to identify or retaliate against the Nov. 10 whistleblower. A Blaze News request to Bongino for further comment went unanswered.

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Assistant Capitol Police chief accused by Rep. Massie of thwarting congressional J6 pipe-bomb investigation retires



Ashan M. Benedict, the assistant U.S. Capitol Police chief who a congressman alleges prevented two special agents involved in the discovery of a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee building from testifying before a U.S. House panel, has retired from the department, Blaze News has learned.

Rumors of Benedict’s retirement came one day after Blaze News published an investigation showing unexplained activity by the Capitol Police officers who discovered that bomb, who were overseen by Benedict. The announcement surprised some at the Capitol Police because his contract with the department was set to expire at the end of the month, on Dec. 1. Benedict came to the Capitol Police on Dec. 4, 2023, as assistant chief for protective and intelligence operations, which includes counter-surveillance teams. He later became assistant chief for standards and training operations.

‘They never looked for a third or fourth or fifth pipe bomb.’

Before he joined the USCP, Benedict was the DNC pipe-bomb incident commander for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In that post, he oversaw ATF’s response to the J6 pipe-bomb threat.

Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan distributed a bulletin Monday, Nov. 24, announcing Benedict’s retirement after less than two years with the USCP. Word had already circulated around the department on the Wednesday before that Benedict was leaving, two sources told Blaze News.

Word of Benedict’s retirement started percolating a day after Blaze News published an investigation showing the two USCP counter-surveillance agents who discovered the DNC bomb on Jan. 6, 2021, seemingly acting in a suspicious manner. The cops parked their car that afternoon and walked straight past a pipe bomb to another location, which Blaze News’ investigation discovered that the pipe-bomb suspect visited the night before. Then the officers returned to the DNC building, where one of them discovered the device.

Pipe-bomb suspect, construction worker, and police at a bush next to Congressional Black Caucus Institute.Photos by U.S. Capitol Police

“I went from 90% certain that some Capitol Police were involved in the Jan. 6 pipe bomb to 95% certain, and now I'm at 99% certain after this new story,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told Blaze News last week in an interview with Steve Baker broadcast on Matt Kibbe’s “Free the People” podcast and posted to X.

“I’m doing this on probability. The probability may even be higher than that.”

The officers were not seen searching any other areas for explosives in any of the extensive video available and reviewed by Blaze News, and they did not continue searching after the DNC device was found at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6.

The USCP has since confirmed that one of its agents found the pipe bomb near the DNC park bench, but there is no video showing that because key cameras were turned away from the DNC building at the time. The fact that the DNC bomb was discovered by plainclothes Capitol Police officers, and not merely a pair of passersby, was not made public until Blaze News broke that news in January 2024.

Following that story, Massie told Blaze News he was determined to interview the agents, but did not get much cooperation from Capitol Police. Massie referred to the agents as “man-bun guy” and “backpack guy” (the one who discovered the bomb). By this time, the agents were under Benedict’s command.

Key cameras that cover the Democratic National Committee building were turned away during bomb discovery and disposal.U.S. Capitol Police

The Capitol Police never made “backpack guy” available to Massie, but on Jan. 30, 2024, they did eventually send his partner, accompanied by Benedict, to speak with the congressman in a meeting that was not recorded or transcribed.

“So they came over to my office, but not ‘backpack guy,’” Massie said. “’Man-bun guy’ came over, and he had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.”

‘They just kind of wander off. Their job was done. They had found the second pipe bomb.’

Two congressional investigators sat in on the meeting alongside Benedict, the police officer, and Massie. “In the conversation with the counter-surveillance officer in my office, Ashan Benedict would frequently interrupt the officer, answer before the officer could reply, or qualify the officer’s answers,” Massie told Blaze News. “There was an effort by our committee staff to get Benedict to sit for a transcribed interview, but he successfully evaded that effort.”

Massie asked the agent who sent him and his partner to the DNC building, as opposed to some other high-visibility potential target.

“How did you know to go look there?” Massie said he asked. “And it wasn't a real good answer, something like, ‘That was my sector’ or something. You know, ‘We’re assigned sectors, and that’s just the sector that I look in.’”

According to the January 2025 report of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, three two-man Capitol Police counter-surveillance teams were dispatched to look for other bombs after discovery of the Capitol Hill Club device.

Massie said he showed a video to the men, depicting the slow, nonchalant response from the Secret Service, Metropolitan Police Department, and Capitol Police to the discovery of a bomb that potentially could have killed them all.

‘He never told me about this other bush.’

“Look, there's pedestrians still walking around, and this is allegedly a pipe bomb,” Massie said. “And that's when his handler [Benedict] stepped in and said, ‘Well, you don’t want to alarm people when you have a lot of crowds. You know, when you find a bomb or something, you can’t yell, ‘Bomb!’ You gotta just play it cool.’”

Video showed there were no crowds near the DNC bomb site. Occasional pedestrian traffic continued on the sidewalk within feet of the bomb, and vehicle traffic was not immediately stopped on nearby streets. Commuter trains continued to rumble over the adjacent train trestle for 15 minutes after discovery of the bomb.

Massie said his next question “elicited the oddest body language I’ve ever seen in a meeting and no real answer.”

“Well, so then you obviously went looking for another pipe bomb, right?” Massie recalled. “You found two of them within 30 minutes. You must believe the whole place is riddled with them if you’re finding them this quickly.

“I actually knew part of the answer. I watched the video of where he went after,” Massie said. “They just kind of wander off. Their job was done. They had found the second pipe bomb. They never looked for a third or fourth or fifth pipe bomb, and they didn’t have an answer to me for why the search for pipe bombs was over once they found the second pipe bomb. No answer. Weirdest meeting in the world.”

Massie said he still wants to see the officer who actually found the bomb and interview him, his partner, and Benedict under oath for transcribed interviews. “Those need to be transcribed interviews. They need to be sworn in. I feel very strongly about that,” he said. “But the reality is the FBI should be doing these things.”

“How did they know exactly where to look, including the place [Congressional Black Caucus Institute bush] where the pipe bomber tried to place a bomb?” Massie asked. “It was police, it was Capitol Hill Police that found these bombs, and they got there. But … I hope they went and bought lottery tickets after finding these, after going to these two locations.

“But when you take them all together, and the fact that I got to interview these, it’s at least one of these guys [who discovered the bomb], and he never told me about this other bush,” Massie said. “He didn't have answers for why they didn’t look for more bombs after they found the second one. And then we’ve got the ATF person in charge of the bomb stuff happening on Jan. 6 is now at Capitol Police handling the interview?”

Sources have said the two special agents, who are known to Blaze News, are still with the Capitol Police. The one who discovered the bomb is now the Capitol Police’s liaison to the FBI — the agency charged with investigating the pipe bombs. His partner, who accompanied Benedict to meet with Massie, still works in the intelligence section.

Benedict’s retirement is just the latest disclosure in two months of developments in the long-unsolved pipe-bomb case.

Questions and requests for comment sent to Benedict and the two officers were not returned in time for publication.

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'She's one of us!' Steve Baker stuns Glenn Beck with bombshell revelation about J6 pipe-bomb suspect



Blaze News investigative reporters Steve Baker and Joseph Hanneman have spent years working to identify the masked individual who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021.

Baker, whom the Biden FBI arrested over his January 6 reporting, revealed to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Wednesday that they have finally locked in on a suspect. What's more, Baker hinted that the suspect's imminent identification will implicate and shame at least one federal agency.

'It is monstrous.'

Baker told Beck, "When I pulled this thread, I was so shocked by what I saw, I immediately took it to a source in one of the most important, highest-level investigative federal agencies in the country. I immediately took it to our sources there, and I said, 'You have to see this.'"

"After they looked at it for about two hours, the response that I got back was, 'Holy F,'" continued Baker. "And then the follow-up response was, 'She's one of us!'"

— (@)

When pressed by Beck about his confidence level in the suspect ID, Baker said, "I will tell you that from gait analysis — that's the analysis of the hoodied bomber ... compared to the gait analysis of this individual in private life and at work — that the actual software hit at a 94% accuracy."

"Human analysis from the experts in intelligence is much higher," continued Baker. "They looked at it and went, 'My God, that's it. We got it.'"

RELATED: Analysis: FBI’s Jan. 6 pipe bomb update omits key evidence, withholds video

FBI

Forensic gait analysis — the scientific study of patterns in an individual's style of movement in walking or running — is regarded as one of the most sophisticated approaches to identifying an individual from CCTV footage or video recordings and as especially valuable in the absence of other biometric identifiers.

The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Magazine noted in 2023 that gait analysis, which has been used to help secure criminal convictions throughout the Anglosphere for decades, "can be compelling, corroborating evidence," especially since "criminals cannot hide their gait."

Baker indicated that he left some "breadcrumbs" in recent reports.

Hanneman and Baker reported last week, for instance, that the 8.5-minute video about the Jan. 6 pipe bombs released by the FBI in October contained footage edited to exclude showing a U.S. Capitol Police SUV pull up directly across the street from where the suspect stood at 8:15 p.m. on January 5, 2021.

In addition to raising suspicion about the selective edit, the investigative duo claimed that the FBI also deliberately chose not to publicly acknowledge the theory that the pipe bombs were part of a poorly timed training exercise.

Baker told Beck on Wednesday that while the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department are offering a $500,000 reward for evidence that leads to an arrest in the case, he didn't take the new evidence implicating the yet-to-be named suspect to the agencies "because we believe that they were actively engaged in the cover-up."

Baker indicated that there are national security-related briefings under way, and Beck said that the suspect's name will be released after the relevant agencies have "battened down the hatches."

Beck said, "This is one of the biggest stories — I think it is the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last 100 years. It is monstrous."

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BIZARRE new facts about January 6 pipe bombs revealed



Curious new facts have come to light in the January 6 pipe-bomb case, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) isn’t buying the previous narrative that the Biden administration pushed.

“It’s amazing what having an administration that actually wants to get to the truth can do to change a narrative,” Loudermilk tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program,” noting that the original premise was that the pipe bombs were placed on the evening of January 5.

“I reached out to the FBI several times during that time period. Of course, the Biden administration, they were not forthcoming with information. Basically, they always use this excuse: ‘This is an ongoing investigation, so we can’t share that information,’” he explains.

“So what we’ve learned through the Trump administration is that story doesn’t fit with the facts that we’re finding. It appears to us … that the pipe bombs had a 60-[minute] egg timer on them,” he continues.


Then Loudermilk recalls receiving a lab report from the FBI on the pipe bombs that said there was no electronic timer.

“The only timer was that 60-minute egg timer. So it’s impossible that these pipe bombs were placed and armed on the night of January 5. They had to be placed at some point not long before they were found on January 6,” he tells Glenn.

A woman who discovered the pipe bomb that was placed near the Republican National Committee headquarters claims that there were still 20 minutes left on the egg timer when she found it.

“So that’s one huge inconsistency,” Loudermilk says.

But that’s not the only inconsistency.

“The other is mysterious data, or data that has mysteriously disappeared. And it was when the FBI was doing geofence searches. They went to all the major cell carriers and asked for all the precise data of people who were in that area on January 5 and 6,” Loudermilk explains.

The only cell carrier that didn’t provide information was AT&T.

“AT&T apparently corrupted the data. Now, we kept hearing that the data was corrupted, and this is in my previous investigation. AT&T claimed they didn’t corrupt the data; the FBI did. The FBI, we found out later, said, ‘No, the data was corrupted when we got it.’ Now that we get the real information, it becomes even more mysterious,” he continues.

This is where an entity known as FirstNet comes in, which was created by Congress after 9/11 to pre-empt cell service for law enforcement.

“So FirstNet actually sits on the AT&T backbone. For some reason — and this is where my suspicion started growing — is when the FBI contacted AT&T, gave them a preservation letter, said, ‘Save all of this data specifically around the areas where the pipe bombs were’ because they have to go through the legal mumbo jumbo to actually get the subpoena,” he explains.

“So they don’t want stuff to disappear. They send a letter telling AT&T to preserve the data. AT&T responds and says, ‘You have to go to FirstNet to get this data.’ Which raises my suspicion. Why are they telling them to go to the carrier just for law enforcement?” he continues.

“Well, according to FirstNet, that data was going to be deleted within just a few hours. So they were in this massive hurry to download all the data before it was deleted, and somehow it just got corrupted,” he says. “I’m not buying the story.”

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5 lies about January 6 EXPOSED



It’s been four years and a day since the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots transpired. Democrats and the legacy media have used the event to label Trump and his supporters as violent and anti-democratic, to convince the nation that Trump intentionally incited an insurrection to overturn the election results, and to rewrite history by claiming that it was “the darkest day” America has ever seen.

This narrative resulted in prison sentences for hundreds of Americans, many of whom were nonviolent attendees.

However, as time has gone on, the narrative surrounding January 6 has been unraveling as more information has come to light.

The truth is — nearly everything we’ve been told about January 6 is a lie.

Glenn Beck exposes all the facets of the J6 narrative as the egregious fabrications they are.

These “bombshells” of information that disprove the J6 narrative are what should formulate the true “message of January 6,” says Glenn.

What’s the message then?

That what really happened on January 6 reveals “the truth about our government, its accountability, and the lengths that it will go to preserve its version of a story even when it is all a lie,” says Glenn.

1. Pipe bomb lies

In the afternoon of January 6, 2021, Americans were warned that two pipe bombs capable of causing “catastrophic harm” were found near the RNC and DNC headquarters.

Why then was Vice President-elect Kamala Harris rushed to the DNC? And why did the Secret Service delete all of the records related to Harris’ whereabouts?

“Now we know the investigation into these bombs was woefully insufficient. ... Surveillance footage was ignored, cameras were turned off just hours before the pipe bomb was laid, cell phone data in both places, we were told, was corrupted,” Glenn explains. The truth is, “The only thing that was corrupted was our own government and FBI.”

Bombshell reports have since revealed that “the data was not corrupted according to the cell phone companies; they were never asked to turn over the information to the FBI. ... Critical leads went unpursued,” and because of this, “Four years later, questions about the bomber's identity still remain unanswered,” says Glenn.

Why the lack of investigation into a critical incident that could have killed the vice president-elect and destroyed the republic?

“What if the pipe bombs were nothing more than a convenient distraction, a justification to escalate security measures and cast a broader shadow over what they hoped would unfold that day?” asks Glenn, adding that “it is our duty as citizens” to ask these questions “because we now know our government lied.”

2. FBI informants

We also know as a fact now that 26 FBI informants were on the Capitol grounds that day but didn’t actually enter the building.

“What were they doing there? Were they infiltrating the crowd? Were they guiding its behavior? Were they acting as provocators?” asks Glenn, adding that “the presence [of these 26 informants] raises troubling concerns about how much of January 6 was actually organic and how much was orchestrated.”

3. Pelosi and media squashed Trump’s authorization of National Guard

It has now been verified as fact that two days prior to January 6, Donald Trump indeed “authorized the deployment of the National Guard, citing concerns over potential unrest at the Capitol on January 6.”

However, his concerns went ignored.

“His offer was rebuffed by Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol police,” says Glenn, asking, “Who in the chain of command chose to disregard this presidential directive?”

Then the mainstream media ignored Trump’s offers to deploy the National Guard and instead blasted out the narrative that he “wanted the chaos.”

“This glaring emission from mainstream narrative exposes just how much the January 6 story has been manipulated to fit a preconceived conclusion,” says Glenn.

4. Death of Ashli Babbitt

Ashli Babbitt, “a decorated Air Force veteran ... was shot and killed on live TV by a Capitol police officer while attempting to climb through a broken window.”

And yet, “Her death was ruled justified almost immediately.”

However, bombshell reporting has since revealed that the officer who killed her, who’s long been shielded from scrutiny and hailed as a hero, actually “violated multiple procedural rules” and “is now under investigation for misconduct so severe it could lead to criminal charges,” says Glenn. “[Ashli’s] story was buried under a mountain of political narratives.”

5. Tech allies offer up data to weaponized justice system

Glenn reveals how our corrupt justice system utilized its “allies in social media” and “high-tech global corporations” to obtain “location data” on individuals who were simply in Washington, D.C., on January 6 and use it for political persecution.

“January 6 wasn't about Trump supporters or Democrats in the media. It was about a system that thrives on division and chaos — a system that uses fear to control us,” he explains, asking, “If federal agencies can lie, manipulate, and withhold the truth about January 6, what are they not capable of doing?”

To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the clip above.

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'Egregious' security failures mar attempts to catch the Jan. 6 pipe bomber, House report says



Federal law enforcement agencies responding to reports of two pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, were guilty of “egregious safety and security failures” for not securing the crime scenes and allowing the House speaker and vice president-elect to come within feet of one of the devices, a U.S. House of Representatives investigation concludes.

An interim joint report of the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight did not address some major topics, however, including how CCTV security cameras were turned away from one crime scene and whether the pipe bombs could have been planted on Jan. 6 — not Jan. 5, as the FBI has long maintained.

The report showed that the FBI amassed 105 million data points in the case — including on the gray-hooded person thought to have planted the bombs on Jan. 5 — yet has not identified the person or made any arrests four years later.

Just as the House report was released, the FBI published new information on the alleged pipe bomber, along with a slightly longer video showing an individual sitting on a bench near the Democratic National Committee building. The video is black and white with the same low frame rate as previous videos released by the FBI.

“The FBI and its law enforcement partners had interviewed approximately 1,000 individuals, visited more than 1,200 residences and businesses, assessed more than 500 tips, and collected more than 39,000 video files,” the report said. “Furthermore, as of April 2021, the FBI had compiled thirty different datasets from multiple sources, including hardware stores, shoe vendors, and cell carrier companies, and had collected over 105,000,000 data points.”

A motive has not been determined, but a major effect of the bombs was to occupy police at a critical time, the report said.

“The discovery of both pipe bombs, which had been laying outside for more than 16 hours, occurred within minutes of Congress’s vote to certify the 2020 presidential election and resulted in federal law enforcement diverting considerable resources away from the United States Capitol,” the report said. “As a result, while law enforcement responded to the pipe bombs, protesters breached security perimeters at the Capitol and entered the building.”

'Somebody’s not doing their job.'

The law enforcement miscues began hours before the bombs were discovered behind the Capitol Hill Club near the Republican National Committee building and on the side of the Democratic National Committee building, the report said.

“On January 6, 2021, the actions of federal law enforcement before, during, and after the discovery of the pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC constituted a series of egregious safety and security failures,” the report said.

The U.S. Secret Service failed to conduct a proper search of the DNC property, with agents and bomb-sniffing dogs operating in close proximity to the pipe bomb, which was in plain view under a park bench near the building, the report said.

This failure allowed Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ motorcade to enter the DNC garage just before 11:30 a.m., feet from the pipe bomb.

After discovery of the pipe bomb next to the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, 2021, agents milled about near the bomb and pedestrians were allowed to walk right through the blast zone.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

Failure to secure the scene and establish a safe perimeter later allowed the motorcade of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to pass near the DNC building after Pelosi was evacuated from the Capitol.

“After the discovery of the pipe bomb, law enforcement failed to immediately secure and maintain a perimeter around the pipe bomb located on a pedestrian walkway outside the DNC,” the report said. “As a result, civilians and law enforcement officers routinely breached the perimeter and came within close proximity — in some cases within feet — of the viable device.”

'More than ten different USSS agents and two canine units passed within close proximity of the pipe bomb.'

Federal law enforcement “risked the safety and security of protectees during the evacuation from the Capitol,” the report said. “Despite repeated attempts to notify law enforcement stationed along the perimeter, numerous civilians, law enforcement officers, congressional leadership, and even trains passed by the pipe bombs, needlessly risking human life.”

The Secret Service’s decision not to employ proper bomb-detection resources was in part to blame for failure to detect the bomb, the report said.

“The USSS’s failure to identify the pipe bomb outside the DNC prior to Vice President-elect Harris’s arrival constituted a serious security failure,” the report said. “Caused in part by the USSS’s decision to not utilize critical explosive detection capabilities, more than ten different USSS agents and two canine units passed within close proximity of the pipe bomb, yet failed to identify the device, resulting in Vice President-elect Harris passing within feet of the pipe bomb.”

According to federal law enforcement standards, the preferred evacuation distance from a pipe bomb is more than 1,200 feet.U.S. House of Representatives report

Secret Service personnel told investigators from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General that “a USSS officer should have been stationed outside of the DNC throughout the morning. Without an officer posted along the sidewalks or streets, the DNC was ultimately unsecured, allowing pedestrians to pass by the unidentified pipe bomb throughout the morning.”

Frustration from the Capitol Police dispatcher was evident as dozens of pedestrians and vehicles were continually allowed to travel directly past the DNC pipe bomb, the report said.

“This is the last time I’m going to ask this request,” one dispatcher said. “We need the unit in front of the Fairchild [building] at South Capitol and E to go one block south. They are in line of sight of this package. Additionally, whoever is in that K-9 vehicle parked on the east curb of South Capitol needs to move ASAP. No more vehicles need to be responding north on South Capitol past the package.”

Similar failures occurred in maintaining a safe perimeter at the RNC, the report said.

“Sir, I have people walking down First Street right in front of the Republican Club,” a dispatcher broadcast at 1:25 p.m. “Somebody’s not doing their job.”

Diversion of resources

While the FBI has failed over four years to establish a solid motive for the pipe bomber, one major effect of the devices is clear, the report said. The discovery of the pipe bombs at 12:43 and 1:05 p.m. drew significant police resources away from the U.S. Capitol and helped enable the swarming of the Capitol grounds by protesters, the report said.

A civilian walks just feet from the U.S. Capitol Police bomb robot near the DNC on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. House of Representatives

“The refusal of top FBI officials to acknowledge even the most self-evident aspects of the pipe bomb investigation nearly four years after they were planted is striking,” the report said. “The significance of the pipe bombs to how the events of January 6 unfolded cannot be overstated. The evidence suggests that the pipe bomber diverted significant law enforcement attention and resources away from the Capitol at the exact time they were needed most.”

The report questioned how the FBI could fail to crack the case after amassing huge datasets on possible suspects and persons of interest. It questioned how the bombs could have detonated on 60-minute egg timers.

“According to an FBI bomb technician who agreed to speak to committee staff on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, the FBI’s use of the term ‘viable’ is a deviation from the standard descriptions used by bomb technicians,” the report said.

“Traditionally, bomb technicians deliberately avoid using vague language, choosing instead to refer to a bomb as a ‘device’ if it would ‘function as designed’ or as a ‘hoax,’” the report said. “In the case of the pipe bombs, it is unclear why the FBI insists on using a vague, non-standard description.”

Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin, who worked on the pipe-bomb investigation, has told Blaze News the devices were not live bombs, based on a briefing his team received while doing surveillance work on the case.

The FBI developed lists of people who might have purchased the type of black powder found inside the pipe bombs, the report said. It tracked down lists of people who purchased similar egg timers. It probed lists of people who purchased Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes like the ones worn by the suspected bomber.

Pedestrians and Secret Service agents mill about near the allegedly live pipe bomb near the DNC headquarters just 5 minutes after its discovery on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. House of Representatives

“Most notably, the FBI identified a person of interest who owned a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers and who worked ‘in the area of the crime.’ In response to this lead, the case team conducted a ‘deep dive’ into this person of interest in an effort to establish ‘independent corroboration’ of this individual’s whereabouts on January 5.”

The bureau received enhanced video of the suspect’s backpack, but despite contacting 18 possible manufacturers, “the FBI had received ‘no positive responses’ from any of the manufacturers,” the report said.

“Despite the FBI’s extensive efforts, including identifying hundreds of purchases and transactions of the suspect’s shoes, the FBI has yet to identify the suspect,” the report said.

Topics not covered

The report did not address how several of the Capitol Police CCTV security cameras that cover the DNC building were turned away from the scene on Jan. 6, preventing investigators from determining more fully who accessed the area around the park bench.

A CCTV camera that showed the nearby bomb-squad staging area suddenly turned away from that scene just as a Capitol Police bomb robot was dispatched to the DNC building, according to Blaze News review of video footage.

The report also didn’t deal with security video footage from DNC cameras that overlook the park bench area. That footage could have determined definitively who planted the DNC device: either the gray-hooded suspect or a federal officer who was seen entering a dead zone between cameras just after 12:50 p.m. on Jan. 6.

A senior congressional source told Blaze News that Homeland Security OIG investigators were able to view about 40 minutes of DNC security video from the night of Jan. 5, and they came away convinced that the sweatshirt-wearing individual placed the bomb.

Still, the blind spot in camera coverage and the turned-away CCTV cameras on Jan. 6 are troubling, the source said.

It’s not clear whether the investigation into the pipe bombs will continue in the 119th U.S. Congress that will be sworn in on Jan. 3.

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