FBI lied about cell phone geofencing data being corrupted in area where pipe bombs planted at DNC, RNC in January 2021

WASHINGTON, DC - For anyone who has paid attention, the bizarre case of pipe bombs planted outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021, remains a mystery worthy of a spy novel. Even more bizarre is the apparent lack of urgency by the FBI in solving the mystery. 

The bomb case was moved off the front pages of the country’s newspapers and media websites by the siege at the US Capitol on January 6. Fortunately, the bombs never went off, however, the mystery remains. The FBI claimed before a congressional committee that phone data that would have provided metadata of the areas where the bombs were planted was “corrupted.” That data would have been important to determine who was in the area and when at the time the bombs were planted. 

However, Steven Richards and John Solomon of Just the News reported last week that according to mobile phone providers, they have “intact phone usage data from the vicinity where two pipe bombs were planted during the Jan. 6 incident,” The Western Journal reports. 

In March 2021, surveillance photos of the suspect who planted the pipe bombs at the two locations the evening before the Jan. 6 “insurrection” were released to the public. 

One might think that the case of a pipe bomb being planted in particular outside the DNC, where incoming vice president Kamala Harris was visiting, might draw some increased scrutiny by the “preeminent” law enforcement agency in the country. That is not the case. 

“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 Committee on Oversight,” the outlet reported. 

“The footage shows 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.” 

As The Western Journal noted, “a man in a gray hoodie and black pants” wouldn’t necessarily be an easy target to track down, however, metadata from cell phones makes it fairly easy to identify suspects who are carrying them. Just ask anyone within a mile of the US Capitol on January 6. So-called “geofence warrants” allow law enforcement agencies to “cast a digital dragnet over the area where a crime was committed,” thereby allowing them to track any suspicious persons. For unknown reasons, the FBI seems disinterested in such an approach. 

Former assistant director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steve D’Antuono, testified (under oath) to a congressional committee last summer that such data was unavailable to them.

“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,” he said. “It just–unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers.

However, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), chair of the House Administration Oversight Committee, said that is not the case. He said that cellular carriers told him that. 

“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,” Loudermilk continued. 

“Every major cell carrier responded and confirmed that they did not provide the FBI corrupted data.” 

Loudermilk also said he sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking if the FBI stood behind D’Antuono’s claim under oath that metadata was corrupted and if the agency had ever contacted the mobile providers for uncorrupted data. 

“The Subcommittee requests that the FBI provide a response to Mr. D’Antuono’s claim that the FBI received corrupted data,” the letter read, and further requested to know whether Wray had ever “inform[ed] the cell carrier[s] that provided corrupted data that the data they provided was corrupted or otherwise unusable.” 

Some people have alleged that the “pipe bombers” were, in fact, insiders and that the devices were planted to make supporters of Donald Trump “look bad.” When the events of January 6 at the Capitol took place, they surmised the plan to blow up the pipe bombs was shelved. 

Why has the FBI ignored this incident, and moreover, why did they lie about the geofencing data? 

That is a question Loudermilk and other congressional Republicans want answered, with Loudermilk saying at a hearing earlier this year, “[d]espite the suspect’s appearance on numerous [Capitol Police] CCTV cameras, and the FBI’s efforts interviewing over 800 individuals and assessing more than 300 tips, the suspect remains at large.” 

Again, contrast those efforts versus the Capitol siege, where individuals involved in minor acts of parading and trespassing have been arrested and prosecuted with far less video evidence. That makes the FBI’s apparent lying about the geofencing data even more egregious. 

As The Western Journal noted:

“Given that pipe bombs are one of the odder events of a profoundly odd day in American history–made even more peculiar by the fact that the whole thing seems to be memory-holed–one would think a certain level of alacrity would be exercised in finding the suspect. Instead, we seem to be getting, at least in public, a whole lot of shrugging from federal officialdom.” 

The federal government, particularly the FBI, would do wonders to restore public trust in the agency and be forthcoming. There are a lot of questions about January 6 as it is, with many people still believing there were government agents embedded among Trump supporters to instigate the crowd. The fact the agency has seemingly blown off a pipe bomb being planted within yards of the vice president-elect should send chills down anyone’s spine, whether they support Kamala Harris or not. Currently, at least one-half of the American people have little or no trust in our federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. 

Hopefully, under a new administration, some light can be shed on the events of January 5 and 6, 2021. The public should demand it.