Security footage reveals suspected J6 pipe bomber visited a third building before Capitol riot

Video footage located by congressional investigators shows the still-unidentified Jan. 6 pipe bomber’s first stop was the Congressional Black Caucus building, but no explosive device was discovered there, raising new questions about the suspect’s goals and motivations ahead of the Capitol riot.  

The footage was identified by Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and his House Judiciary subcommittee, which is investigating the security failures and the unanswered questions of Jan. 6.

The panel has taken a particular interest in the two pipe bombs that were discovered that day outside the national headquarters of both major political parties, the Republican and Democratic National Committee buildings. 

To date, despite extensive video evidence of the scenes, no suspect has been identified by law enforcement.

Suspect stopped at Congressional Black Caucus Institute building

The footage contains a previously nonpublic segment showing the alleged pipe bomber approaching the Congressional Black Caucus Institute building near Capitol Hill and kneeling down near a bush on the property, Loudermilk told Just the News. 

Just the News reviewed the footage and confirmed the lawmaker's description.

“We've tracked that path with security camera footage that we have access to, but they missed one key aspect…they made a stop as they walked past the Congressional Black Caucus, turned, and went on to the property and knelt down by a bush. Now this is the first real stop that the pipe bomber made,” Loudermilk told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Thursday. 

“Now this is before they actually placed the bomb at the DNC. So, what were they doing there at the Congressional Black Caucus? No bomb was found there," Loudermilk said.

The FBI's official timeline shows the alleged bomber passing by the congressional black caucus building, but the footage released by Loudermilk provides the first evidence that the alleged bomber stopped at the building and kneeled momentarily.

FBI officials said they have known about the footage for some time and credited Loudermilk for making it public.

“This video is not new to our investigators and is part of our file. We appreciate Chairman Loudermilk’s continued partnership in helping our investigators turn over every stone for the American public," an FBI spokesman said.

The chairman said the newly discovered footage raises new questions about the alleged pipe bomber’s goals, whether he or she intended to place an additional device at the Congressional Black Caucus building or whether a bomb planted there was later moved to the RNC or DNC. 

“[Maybe] the original plan was to place one there and then one at the DNC, but for some reason, decided not to place it there and ended up putting that one at the RNC. Was there originally three pipe bombs and that one, maybe something happened to it and it fell apart?” Loudermilk questioned. 

“We don't know, but what we do know is that it appears through this video that the gray hoodie person, the pipe bomber, made a stop at the Congressional Black Caucus and placed something, or attempted to place something, under a bush there,” he added. 

In the videos, which were obtained by Just the News, a suspect wearing clothing similar to the suspect identified in prior footage can be seen entering the property of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute on Capitol Hill at about 7:50 PM on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021. Then, the suspect appears to kneel down next to a bush on the property for nearly a minute before walking a different route to the rear of the building, where public photographs show there is a parking lot. 

The CBC Institute building is directlly adjacent to the DNC building where one of the two pipe bombs was later discovered on Jan. 6. 

$500,000 reward still unclaimed

The overlooked footage is the latest finding by Loudermilk’s subcommittee that has raised even more questions about the pipe bombs, which remain the largest unsolved mystery of Jan. 6. So far, no suspect has been apprehended by the police. As of last month, the FBI is still offering a $500,000 reward for information that would help to identify the person who placed the bombs. 

Several months ago, FBI documents turned over by Director Kash Patel to Loudermilk’s subcommittee injected fresh mystery into the cold case. 

One document, an analysis by the FBI’s explosives laboratory of the pipe bombs, found the devices were filled with chemical building blocks of black powder, each was equipped with a 60-minute kitchen timer, and each had destructive potential. However, neither device exploded, and they were discovered about 16 hours after the FBI claimed they were planted outside both the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters. 

An ex-FBI explosives expert told Just the News that the bureau’s original lab analysis of the bombs was a “mess” and that both devices appeared inoperable. 

Loudermilk: “I'm not buying the story anymore"

The memos also contained interviews with a key witness who told the FBI the RNC device still had 20 minutes remaining on its timer when she discovered it on Jan. 6. This conflicts with the timeline the FBI provided earlier to the public, which said the bomb at the RNC was most likely planted the night before, after 8:00 PM.

“I'm not buying the story anymore that they were there on the fifth,” Loudermilk previously told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. “I believe that they were put out on the sixth at this point. This is the theory that we're going on, especially since the lady that found them said there were still 20 minutes left on the timer when they were placed there.” 

Loudermilk said that the current fact pattern, and contradictions between the witness statements and the FBI’s timeline, all lead congressional investigators to consider alternative theories about the purpose of those pipe bombs. One of those theories is that the pipe bombs could have been part of a law enforcement training exercise on the same day as the Capitol riot, Just the News previously reported. 

Key cell phone data disappears

Further complicating the hunt for the pipe bomber suspect, the subcommittee also obtained documents that show key cell phone location data was deleted from an AT&T and government system just days after Jan. 6, eliminating a key piece of evidence for investigators to determine the identity of the individual who placed the devices, Just the News previously reported. 

On Jan. 11, 2021, the FBI sent a preservation request to the AT&T Public Sector team to retain precise location data “which provides the distance between mobile devices and the cell tower it is interacting with” for Jan. 5 and 6. The data would be vital for the bureau’s search for suspects in the vicinity of the RNC and DNC that day, when the bureau said the bombs were planted. 

However, AT&T told the FBI that “The Data for January 5th was corrupted and cannot be restored; all we have is the 6th,” giving rise to the claim from then-head of the Washington Field Office, Steve D’Antuono, that the relevant data had been corrupted. Yet, earlier this year, the company told the FBI that the data was actually deleted from its systems due to a “seven-day retention” policy.