Pipe bomb experts are heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to testify on law enforcement’s response to explosive devices left outside the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee on Jan. 6, 2021, with several expected to note that investigations “take time” and are “not like TV shows.”
The testimonies on Tuesday are part of a larger investigation by House Republicans into the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, particularly as the people responsible for placing the pipe bombs outside the national committees have not been caught after three years and the FBI offering a $500,000 reward.
The House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) has been spearheading the investigation into Jan. 6, including challenging accounts of the riots and findings from the Democratic-led select committee on Jan. 6. Tuesday’s hearing is titled “Three Years Later: Assessing the Law Enforcement Response to Multiple Pipe Bombs on January 6, 2021.”
Among those testifying is Sean Gallagher, assistant chief of uniformed operations for the U.S. Capitol Police, who plans on providing details about the pipe bombs’ locations and ways the agency has made additional improvements since Jan. 6, according to witness testimony.
Gallagher will say uniformed officers were notified of a pipe bomb located near the Capitol Hill Club in an alley and that K-9 units discovered a suspicious pickup truck loaded with 11 Molotov cocktails, several firearms, ammunition, and multiple matches. The owner of the pickup truck was arrested and sentenced to 47 months in prison, but the person who placed the pipe bomb near the RNC has not been caught.
Approximately 23 minutes after officers were alerted to the RNC bomb, USCP officers found a pipe bomb located under a bench in front of the DNC, with the person responsible for that device evading arrest as well.
“We now know based on video surveillance that both devices appear to have been placed the night before, on January 5, 2021,” Gallagher said in prepared remarks. “While there is vague footage of the suspect, to date, no one has been arrested for the offense despite a $500,000 reward and many hours of hard work by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.”
“I hope one day that the person or persons responsible for planting these devices will be brought to justice by the FBI,” he will continue.
The mystery of who placed the pipe bombs near the DNC and RNC has continued for the last three years. The FBI released footage last year of the suspect wearing a face mask, glasses, a gray hooded sweatshirt, and gloves, using a backpack to transport the bombs.
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testified to a Senate panel in 2021 that he believed the bombs were dropped “right off the edge of our perimeter to, what I suspect, draw resources away.”
“I think there was significant coordination with this attack,” Sund said.
Other people testifying on Tuesday include Sean Dennis, president and CEO of the United States Bomb Technician Association, and Barry Black, former FBI master bomb technician. Black plans to say that, though he retired from the FBI in 2019 and was not present for the Jan. 6 events, he is familiar with how improvised explosive device investigations and post-blast investigations are conducted.
“As for the January 6 devices, it appears the perpetrator intentionally concealed their physical appearance, wore gloves to limit trace evidence, and avoided any unique components in the construction of the IEDs that could lead to their point of origin,” Black said in prepared testimony. “Someone may yet have a single piece of information that will move the investigation forward.”
“But as I said in a 2021 interview about this case, these investigations take time. It’s not like TV shows where complex cases are solved in an hour,” Black said.
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Over 1,350 people have been criminally charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack, including former President Donald Trump.
Trump faces four counts related to the federal election subversion case, including charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding: the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory by Congress. The former president faces 91 total felony counts across four criminal cases, two at the federal level, one out of New York, and one out of Georgia.