FBI has made little meaningful progress toward identifying Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect: House GOP report

House Republicans warned Thursday that Americans are “less secure” as a result of the FBI’s “failure” to identify the person responsible for placing pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters nearly four years ago. A report on the attempted bombings released by Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chairman of the House Administration Committee’s oversight panel, and Rep.Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) found “little meaningful progress” has been made in the investigation and revealed that federal law enforcement has “refused to provide substantive updates to Congress” about the current status of the probe. The FBI’s investigation “yielded a promising array of data and revealed numerous persons of interest” in the initial weeks of the probe, according to the lawmakers, but the case soon went cold.“By the end of February 2021, the FBI began diverting resources away from the pipe bomb investigation,” the report states, noting that “one possible explanation for the reduction in resources is that the number of credible leads began to decline, no longer requiring as many special agents to cover the workload.”“Ultimately, however, almost four years after the placement of the pipe bombs, no suspect has been arrested or identified,” the report concludes.Investigators believe the two pipe bombs, described by the FBI as “viable explosive devices,” were planted outside the two major political parties’ headquarters in Washington, DC, on Jan.

5, 2021 — the night before the riot at the US Capitol — by a person carrying a backpack and wearing a grey-hooded sweatshirt, mask, gloves, glasses, and a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers. The devices were discovered the following afternoon, at around the same time Congress convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.“In the immediate aftermath of January 6, the FBI’s case team worked aggressively to cultivate and purs...