FBI Arrests Suspect in Jan. 6 Eve Pipe Bomb Case
Federal authorities have arrested a suspect believed to be responsible for placing pipe bombs outside the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the January 6 Capitol riot. The case — one of the most publicized unsolved mysteries of the past five years — had long raised questions about why investigators failed to identify the culprit sooner.
Although the devices did not explode, the FBI has repeatedly said the bombs were “viable” and could have caused serious injury or death. Surveillance footage captured the masked suspect wearing a gray hoodie, gloves, glasses, and carrying a backpack containing the explosives.
Earlier this year, a Republican-led congressional panel sharply criticized the FBI’s inability to make progress after years of intensive investigative work. As of January, the bureau had conducted over 1,200 interviews and site visits, reviewed more than 39,000 videos, and followed hundreds of leads — all without producing a suspect until now.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who took office under President Donald Trump’s second-term administration, stated in November that he intended to overhaul the bureau’s approach to the stalled case. At the time, Bongino did not mince words: “There is a massive cover-up because the person who planted those pipe bombs, they don’t want you to know who it was because it’s either a connected anti-Trump insider or this was an inside job.”
The bombs were discovered on January 6, with the RNC device found first. The DNC explosive, notably, was located while then–Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the building — a detail that has continued to raise eyebrows as more information about government actions that day emerges.
New Questions Surround Arctic Frost Investigation
Simultaneously, newly released documents are raising concerns about the now-discredited Biden-era probe targeting President Trump and hundreds of his allies. The FBI memo that launched the investigation — code-named Arctic Frost — reportedly lacked meaningful evidence, relying heavily on CNN interview clips to “suggest” Trump’s involvement in an alleged conspiracy.
The probe, spearheaded initially by an FBI supervisor with an anti-Trump record and later taken over by Special Counsel Jack Smith, treated the submission of alternate electors — a process with historical precedent — as a potential criminal enterprise. Just the News reported that similar elector challenges in earlier presidential elections were never prosecuted.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who obtained the originating FBI memo from current FBI Director Kash Patel, said the flaws mirrored the bureau’s politically driven missteps in the infamous 2016 Russia collusion probe, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.” Jordan argued that both investigations were based on thin evidence and partisan motivation rather than legal merit.
Jordan has invited Smith to testify before Congress and has publicly warned that a subpoena will follow if Smith refuses. Smith, for his part, continues to deny wrongdoing while pledging to “present his side of the story.”
Documents released in recent weeks by Director Patel show that Arctic Frost had been authorized at the highest levels of the Biden administration — Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and even a White House lawyer.
The investigation focused primarily on Republican officials in key swing states who submitted alternate slates of electors ahead of the January 6 certification. The case was eventually moved from the FBI to Jack Smith’s office, which then issued a sweeping series of subpoenas.
On Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released 197 of those subpoenas, revealing that more than 400 Republican organizations and individuals were targeted in what he described as a “broad, politically charged fishing expedition.”