Federal authorities have arrested a Virginia man in connection with the placement of two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
The suspect is expected to faces charges for allegedly planting the devices — which investigators later determined were viable explosives that if detonated could have resulted in “serious injury or death” — marking an extraordinary development in one of the most high-profile federal investigations in recent history.
It’s not clear the full scope of evidence authorities have gathered allegedly tying him to the planting of the bombs.
The arrest comes nearly five years after the discovery of the pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC headquarters on the afternoon of Jan. 6, roughly 16 hours after they were placed by a suspect who was seen on various surveillance cameras wearing a gray-hooded sweatshirt, a mask, and a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.
Investigators described the suspect as having a severe gait, pointing to the movements seen in security camera footage.
The discovery triggered a massive law enforcement response to both locations just minutes before hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump began breaching barricades outside of the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were convening to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
The absence of other distinctive identifying characteristics of the suspect frustrated investigators for years as they issued repeated pleas to the public for tips that could help them track down the alleged pipe bomber.
But four years after the incident, the FBI still couldn’t definitively state the suspect’s gender, despite an expansive probe that the bureau said included more than 1,000 interviews, a review of more than 39,000 video files, and over 600 tips from the public that were investigated.
The FBI offered a reward of $500,000 to anyone who provided information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect.
The lack of answers led to widespread conspiracy theories about the suspect’s potential political motivations and speculation over whether they may have had foreknowledge about the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“There is a massive cover-up, because the person who planted those pipe bombs — they don’t want you to know who it was, because it’s either a connected anti-Trump insider, or this was an inside job,” Dan Bongino, now the deputy FBI director, said on The Dan Bongino Show in Nov. 2024. “Those bombs were planted there. This was a setup. I have zero doubt.”
The pipe bomb placed at the DNC came within feet of then-Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, according to a subsequent report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
“The Vice President-elect, traveling in an armored vehicle with her motorcade, entered the building via a ramp within 20 feet of the pipe bomb, and was in the building for approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes before the pipe bomb was discovered and she was subsequently evacuated,” the report said.
The pipe bomb was about 9 feet from the building’s exterior wall, the report said.
A House committee report released earlier this year provided new insight into the FBI’s investigation into the pipe bombs and also highlighted multiple failures by law enforcement to detect the devices and properly secure the scenes after they were discovered.
