A congressional committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, on Monday requested more information surrounding Secret Service agents who appeared to miss a pipe bomb planted in Washington, D.C., during their security sweep of the area.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who heads the House select subcommittee on Jan. 6, asked to examine transcripts of government interviews that the committee conducted following Jan. 6 with Secret Service agents on then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s security detail. In his letter to Secret Service Director Sean Curran, Loudermilk also requested that seven individuals, whose names were redacted, be made available for transcribed interviews with the committee.
“More than four years later, there remain more questions than answers surrounding who may have placed these devices and whether federal law enforcement entities have adequately investigated the matter. Given the presence of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’s Secret Service detail at the [Democratic National Committee] when authorities discovered the pipe bomb, your agents may possess information that is necessary for our oversight and request your cooperation in this process,” Loudermilk wrote.
Loudeermilk had previously questioned why the federal agents did not find a pipe bomb placed by an unknown individual near the DNC headquarters on the evening before Jan. 6.
Harris’s Secret Service detail used two canine units to conduct a sweep of the area in preparation for her visit to the DNC on the morning of Jan. 6. But it was a plainclothes U.S. Capitol Police officer who first reported finding the bomb, still undetonated, later that afternoon, around the same time the Capitol was breached. Harris came within 20 feet of the bomb placed at the DNC during her visit to the location.
“It is generally accepted that the pipe bombs acted as a means of diverting law enforcement resources away from the Capitol, notably at almost precisely the same time as protestors started to breach the Capitol perimeter,” Loudermilk wrote this week.
During a congressional hearing last year on the DNC pipe bomb, Loudermilk said two Secret Service K-9 sweeps seemed to miss the bomb, as well as a second pipe bomb similarly planted at the Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 5
“I mean, the Secret Service did two sweeps of the perimeter out there. Never identified the bomb that was left to be seen,” Loudermilk said.
On Monday, the Jan. 6 committee chairman requested the Secret Service turn over all documents and communications relating “to a cell phone migration, system upgrade, or any other process or act by which employees of the United States Secret Service had their phones wiped of all electronic communications in the January–April 2021 timeframe.”
The FBI has been investigating the pipe bomb planter’s identity for years. The agency has blamed its inability to trace the suspect on several issues, including what it described as inferior surveillance cameras in the areas around the Capitol.
“The available surveillance camera footage in the area is a bit sporadic. It certainly is not all the same quality,” David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office, told CNN in January.
At the time, the FBI said it was unable to locate the suspect after reviewing 39,000 video files, conducting 1,000 interviews, and investigating over 600 tips.
The FBI has released several videos of surveillance footage of the suspect to the public, including one most recently made available last month.
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One video shows the individual placing the bomb under a bench close to the DNC building. Other footage shows the suspect stopping on South Capitol Street and appearing to put on a pair of sunglasses, scanning the area, and putting down a backpack that the FBI believes contained one of the bombs.
The same person can be seen in another video placing a bomb under a bench near the DNC.