by Steven Richards and John Solomon
Cellular carriers have told Congress they possess intact phone usage data from the vicinity where two pipe bombs were planted during the Jan. 6 incident, directly disputing FBI testimony that agents couldn’t identify a suspect because the phone data was corrupted, a key House chairman tells Just the News.
The revelations from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, adds new intrigue to a debate that has gripped Washington for nearly four years: Why can’t the FBI with so much evidence and manpower identify the suspect who planted the explosive devices at the Democrat and Republican Party headquarters hours before the Capitol was breached.
“In the days and weeks following January 6, 2021, the FBI opened an investigation into the pipe bomber and attempted to identify the suspect by analyzing cell phone data linked to the area surrounding the RNC and DNC,” Loudermilk told Just the News.
“In June 2023, the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steve D’Antuono, who oversaw the pipe bomb investigation, said that the FBI received corrupted data from one of the cell carriers and that it most likely contained the identity of the pipe bomber. Given the significance of this information, my Subcommittee sent letters to the three major cell carriers, asking them to respond to Mr. D’Antuono’s claim of corrupted data,” he said.
“Every major cell carrier responded and confirmed that they did not provide the FBI corrupted data,” Loudermilk said.
“Additionally every major cell carrier confirmed they were never notified that the FBI had any issues accessing the data. This contradictory testimony raises some serious questions about the status of the investigation into the pipe bomber and about why the case remains unsolved nearly four years later,” he added.
Last year, D’Antuono told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI did not a receive complete phone data from telephone carriers because some of it had been corrupted.
“We did a complete geofence. We have complete data. Not complete, because there’s some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them, right. It just — unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers,” D’Antuono testified in a transcribed interview.
“But for that day, 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, right,” he said.
D’Antuono served as the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office until he stepped down in late 2022. A lawyer for the retired agent did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment.
The concerns about the unsolved Jan. 6 pipe bombs have been heightened by evidence Loudermilk disclosed in the last year showing that then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was taken within 10 yards of one of the live bombs on the morning of Jan. 6 because the Secret Service did not do a thorough security sweep.
In addition, Loudermilk also provided security camera video footage and still photos of the suspect holding a device that lawmakers believe was a cell phone, further making the phone data a potential case-solving piece of evidence.
Loudermilk sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray this fall demanding to know whether D’Antuono’s testimony was accurate and whether the bureau ever went back to the cell phone carriers to get a fresh set of uncorrupted data. Just the News obtained a copy of the letter.
“The Subcommittee requests that the FBI provide a response to Mr. D’Antuono’s claim that the FBI received corrupted data,” Loudermilk wrote Wray.
The letter specifically demands that the FBI chief answer whether the bureau ever “inform the cell carrier(s) that provided corrupted data that the data they provided was corrupted or otherwise unusable.”
The bureau was able to obtain photographic and video evidence of the prime suspect, but have so far been unable to locate the individual, to the consternation of congressional investigators. A $500,000 reward for information about the suspect remains in effect, according to the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
The FBI declined to comment on the investigation.
House Republicans previously raised several concerns about the FBI’s handling of the investigation born from D’Antuono’s testimony.
D’Antuono told Congress his investigators were not able to determine the whether the pipe bombs were placed as a diversionary tactic for the riot at the Capitol and was unable to recall if they had interviewed a key witness—the individual who discovered the pipe bombs. Additionally, D’Antuono gave testimony that the pipe bombs were deemed inoperable, despite the Quantico laboratory coming to a different conclusion.
At a hearing earlier this year about assessing the law enforcement response to the pipe bombs, Loudermilk reiterated concerns about the FBI’s investigation.
“Despite the suspect’s appearance on numerous USCP CCTV cameras, and the FBI’s efforts interviewing over 800 individuals and assessing more than 300 tips, the suspect remains at large,” Loudermilk said.
“Unfortunately, FBI has failed to provide substantive updates on the investigation despite numerous requests from congressional committees. Today, they have declined to participate in our hearing,” he added.
The pipe bombs, which were planted at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and Republican National Committee headquarters relatively undetected, are one of the most prominent security failures that took place on January 6.
In one episode that represents the extent of the security lapse which left experts disturbed, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was brought within yards of where the pipe bomb had earlier been planted, according to security footage reviewed by Just the News last year and released publicly by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
The footage shows that the suspect calmly sitting at a park bench near the DNC’s garage entrance the night before, taking out the explosive device and planting it between the bench and a bush about 10 yards from the driveway before walking off. A photo of the device as it was found while Harris was still visiting the DNC shows it clearly visible to the human eye.
Despite the bomb’s proximity to the garage entrance where Harris arrived, the footage shows the Secret Service motorcade bringing the future vice president into the driveway and into the building the next day, seemingly unaware that an explosive device was in the immediate vicinity. Harris was only evacuated after a passerby notified the Secret Service detail of a suspicious object, which turned out to be one of the pipe bombs.
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Steven joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida.
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News. Before founding Just the News, Solomon played key reporting and executive roles at some of America’s most important journalism institutions, such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Hill.
Image “Pipe Bomb Suspect” by FBI.
