The new revelations heighten the mystery—and scrutiny of the FBI—surrounding one of the most disturbing security failures on the day of the Capitol riot.
Cellular carriers have told Congress they possess intact phone usage data from the vicinity where two pipe bombs were planted during the Jan. 6 incident, directly disputing FBI testimony that agents couldn't identify a suspect because the phone data was corrupted, a key House chairman tells Just the News.
The revelations from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, adds new intrigue to a debate that has gripped Washington for nearly four years: Why can't the FBI with so much evidence and manpower identify the suspect who planted the explosive devices at the Democrat and Republican Party headquarters hours before the Capitol was breached.
“In the days and weeks following January 6, 2021, the FBI opened an investigation into the pipe bomber and attempted to identify the suspect by analyzing cell phone data linked to the area surrounding the RNC and DNC,” Loudermilk told Just the News.
“In June 2023, the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steve D’Antuono, who oversaw the pipe bomb investigation, said that the FBI received corrupted data from one of the cell carriers and that it most likely contained the identity of the pipe bomber. Given the significance of this information, my Subcommittee sent letters to the three major cell carriers, asking them to respond to Mr. D’Antuono’s claim of corrupted data,” he said.
“Every major cell carrier responded and confirmed that they did not provide the FBI corrupted data,” Loudermilk said.
“Additionally every major cell carrier confirmed they were never notified that the FBI had any issues accessing the data. This contradictory testimony raises some serious questions about the status of the investigation into the pipe bomber and about why the case remains unsolved nearly four years later,” he added.
Last year, D’Antuono told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI did not a receive complete phone data from telephone carriers because some of it had been corrupted.
“We did a complete geofence. We have complete data. Not complete, because there's some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them, right. It just -- unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers,” D’Antuono testified in a transcribed interview.
“But for that day, which is awful because we don't have that information to search. So could it have been that provider? Yeah, with our luck, you know, with this investigation it probably was, right,” he said.
D’Antuono served as the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office until he stepped down in late 2022. A lawyer for the retired agent did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment.
The concerns about the unsolved Jan. 6 pipe bombs have been heightened by evidence Loudermilk disclosed in the last year showing that then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was taken within 10 yards of one of the live bombs on the morning of Jan. 6 because the Secret Service did not do a thorough security sweep.
In addition, Loudermilk also provided security camera video footage and still photos of the suspect holding a device that lawmakers believe was a cell phone, further making the phone data a potential case-solving piece of evidence.
Loudermilk sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray this fall demanding to know whether D'Antuono's testimony was accurate and whether the bureau ever went back to the cell phone carriers to get a fresh set of...
