The Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Timeline Just Got Stranger
Newly reviewed security footage from Capitol Hill appears to show U.S. Capitol Police counter-surveillance officers examining a specific shrub outside the Congressional Black Caucus Institute just two minutes before discovering a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021.
The device found at the DNC was an eight-inch steel pipe with end caps, wiring, a nine-volt battery, and a kitchen timer. It had been placed under a bench in plain view. Two officers walked past that bench about fifteen minutes after police dispatchers warned of a pipe bomb found earlier at the Republican National Committee building. They did not notice the device during that first pass and instead went directly to the nearby CBCI building.
Security video shows one officer stopping at a bush outside the CBCI at 1:03 p.m. He bent down and appeared to look underneath before moving on. Two minutes later, the same officers returned to the DNC and located the second device.
The search pattern is notable because those two bushes are the only locations the officers examined during the eleven minutes captured on available security video. Footage also shows that the same bush had been visited the night before by the individual believed to be the pipe bomber. At 7:48 p.m. on January 5, the suspect sat in front of the bush, rummaged through a backpack, and appeared to place an object beneath it before walking to the DNC bench and placing the second device.
A House investigative report released in January 2025 states that three teams were deployed to search for explosives after the RNC device was discovered at 12:43 p.m. on January 6. The counter-surveillance team retraced the same two locations the suspect visited the night before, though the significance of the CBCI bush was not known to officers at that time.
Some Capitol Police cameras that typically face the rear of the DNC building were turned away during this window, creating gaps in documentation. As a result, the officers were out of view for nearly four minutes while walking between the DNC and the CBCI.
Once the DNC device was spotted at 1:07 p.m., police radioed in a second explosive. Despite the discovery, security footage shows pedestrians, vehicle traffic, and even commuter trains continuing to move close to the device for several minutes. Critics, including members of Congress, have questioned why a larger perimeter was not immediately established.
Footage also shows the motorcade of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris entering and leaving the DNC garage within feet of the device. Harris was evacuated nearly ten minutes after the discovery.
New questions have emerged about whether the device at the DNC had been moved or re-positioned overnight. The suspect appeared to place the bomb with the short end facing the sidewalk on January 5, while photos taken after discovery show the long end facing outward. According to investigators who reviewed the footage, this difference suggests the bomb may have been retrieved and placed again. The FBI has stated that overnight footage from the relevant camera was overwritten.
Further inconsistencies have contributed to concerns about the completeness of the official record. The Secret Service reported that bomb-sniffing dogs swept the area on the morning of January 6 but did not search the exact bushes where the device was located. Thousands of Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6 were deleted during a phone migration process that began after Congress issued a records preservation notice.
Security camera angles that would have captured critical movements were turned away from the DNC building at key times on both January 5 and January 6. The FBI has not publicly commented on why those camera adjustments occurred or why footage that may show the device being moved was not recovered.
Members of Congress are continuing to seek interviews with the two officers who located the DNC bomb, though those efforts have been blocked by the U.S. Capitol Police.
Further Reading:
1. U.S. Capitol Police – January 6 CCTV Releases
https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/uscp-cctv-releases
2. FBI Public Updates on the Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Investigation
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/january-6-2021-pipe-bomb
3. House Administration Committee – Oversight Reports
https://cha.house.gov/reports
4. DHS Inspector General Reports (including Secret Service findings)
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/reports
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