House GOP to Hold Hearing on Pipe Bombs Planted on Jan. 6

A House committee is set to conduct a hearing next week regarding law enforcement’s handling of the pipe bombs discovered before the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

No arrests were made in connection with the multiple pipe bombs found outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5. Fortunately, the bombs did not detonate.

In January, the FBI announced that the $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest still stands.

The hearing, titled “Three Years Later: Assessing the Law Enforcement Response to Multiple Pipe Bombs on January 6, 2021,” will be led by Barry Loudermilk, the Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman for the Committee on House Administration.

Four witnesses are scheduled to testify, including Sean Gallagher, Capitol Hill Assistant Chief of Police for Uniformed Operations.

Despite the passage of time, no arrest has been made, and there are still conflicting views within law enforcement about the suspect’s gender, the intention behind the bombs, and their potential to detonate.

In June, Steven D’Antuono, former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO), testified that although the bombs were viable, the timer used could not have caused them to explode due to elapsed time. D’Antuono also mentioned that the theory of using the bombs as a diversion was speculative at best.

“Mr. D’Antuono’s testimony raises concerns about the FBI’s handling of the pipe bomb investigation, more than 890 days after the bombs were discovered,” the Judiciary Committee stated on June 14, 2023.