It took nearly five years – and a change in administration – to solve this mystery from the January 6 chaos following the 2020 election. The mystery has endured ever since about the identity of the person who placed pipe bombs outside the headquarters of both major parties during the night of January 5, 2021. This morning, the New York Times reports that the FBI has finally made an arrest in the terrorism case, but has yet to name its suspect:
Federal agents on Thursday arrested a suspect in Virginia on charges of having planted two pipe bombs near the Capitol the night before Jan. 6, 2021, after nearly five years of false leads and frustrated investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The suspect’s identity remained unclear for the moment, but the arrest could ultimately provide an answer to one of the most enduring mysteries arising from Jan. 6.: Who planted the bombs on Capitol Hill outside the national headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic parties on the night before a congressional ceremony certifying that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won the 2020 election? …
Conspiracy theories have often filled the void left by the lack of an arrest, many of them centered on the belief that the pipe bombs were put in place as part of an inside job by deep-state law enforcement and intelligence officials intended to discredit President Trump and his supporters.
Fox News also broke the story on cable news networks:
The only data on the suspect is that he is a male, living in Northern Virginia. That does not offer much in the way of motive or potential insider access. Among the conspiracy theories that have emerged is that the perp had served as a law-enforcement or intelligence officer, with one subject of speculation being a specifically named female. The arrest of a male today should put an end to that particular thread of hypothesizing. For now, anyway.
Why now? Fox News notes that the DoJ offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perp. CNN also includes that in its report on the arrest:
Investigators reviewed tens of thousands of video files, hundreds of tips and scoured cell phone tower data. They examined data on sales of black and gray Nike Air Max sneakers worn by the suspect – fewer than 25,000 of the shoes had been sold around the time the bombs were placed.
They were thwarted by a number of challenges, including poor surveillance video quality. Given the pandemic era when face masks were common and a cold winter night, the bomber didn’t seem remarkable to any witnesses.
The FBI had offered a $500,000 reward for information that helped investigators identity the person and conducted a thousand interviews, but it still struggled for years to determine who placed the crude bombs on January 5, 2021, the night before then-President Donald Trump would make his last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The lack of progress has certainly fed the conspiracy theories. We shall see how well-founded those suspicions could be when the identity of the suspect and the indictment are made public. My best guess: this will turn out to be unrelated to the J6 riot or law enforcement and intelligence agecies, but will be a rando nutcase anarchist. But I’m open to all possibilities.
The DoJ will hold a press conference today, although the timing is still unclear. We will either update this post with new developments as warranted, create a new thread for the presser, or both. Stay tuned.
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