(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Earlier this month, Judge Beryl Howell unsealed the four-year-old search warrants from the FBI’s stagnant investigation into who planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
The unsealed records, first reported on by CourtWatch.News, show that the FBI applied for four search warrants on Jan. 9, 2021—seeking a trove of cell phone data from cell towers where the subject was observed. The search warrants were for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
On Jan. 13, 2021, a judge denied the FBI’s applications on the grounds that they were overly broad, and that the FBI “failed to establish probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment.” The judge approved the applications after the government provided more information about them on that same day.
Earlier this month, the search warrants for the FBI's Jan. 5/6 pipe bomb investigation were unsealed.
I didn't see too much new or interesting in here, but it's worth noting that Judge Beryl Howell initially denied the search warrant applications, which sought vast troves of cell… pic.twitter.com/Z026bmK74b— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) March 28, 2025
For the next four years, the search warrant documents remained sealed. The Justice Department applied to unseal them on March 17.
“The Subject remains unidentified and the government’s investigation into this matter continues,” the DOJ said in its motion to unseal.
“Recently, however, the existence of these tower dump warrants has been made public through a report by Congress,” prosecutors added. “In light of this disclosure, the previously proffered reasons for keeping these dockets and filings sealed has been mitigated.”
The search warrants don’t appear to reveal much new information about the pipe bombs. They do support the theory raised by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and others that the pipe bombs were placed to divert law enforcement from the Capitol right as the protest was becoming especially heated.
“At approximately 1:00 p.m., a suspected IED was reported at RNC headquarters, located at 310First Street, SE, in Washington, D.C. Fifteen minutes later, at approximately 1:15 p.m., a second suspected IED with a similar description was reported at DNC headquarters,” Judge Howell noted in a Jan. 17, 2021, order.
“The timing, to align with the opening of the joint session, and the locations at which the devices were found, blocks away from the Capitol, raise the suspicion that the IEDs may have been strategically placed to distract and divert law enforcement from the impending mob rush at the Capitol.”
The unsealed search warrant docket also makes no mention of an allegation from FBI senior official Steven D’Antuono that some of the data provided by cell phone providers was “corrupted.” All the cell providers have also denied D’Antuono’s claim.
Before Donald Trump took office in January, he claimed that the FBI knew the pipe bomber’s identity.
Trump destroys Jan 6 BS Narrative pic.twitter.com/IRdQYx73M2
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) January 7, 2025
“And why didn’t they find the pipe bomber?” Trump asked. “You know, they know who the pipe bomber is. The FBI knows who it is.”
Trump’s remarks followed a bombshell report from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and the House Administration Committee, suggesting an FBI coverup.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Kamala Harris continues to be tight-lipped on the subject, despite the fact that her motorcade drove past the DNC pipe bomb on Jan. 6. Harris left the Capitol at 11:21 a.m. arrived to the DNC at 11:25 a.m., but the nearby pipe bomb wasn’t discovered until 1:07 p.m. by a plainclothes Capitol Police officer.
The lack of answers have driven many to suspect that it may have been a false-flag attempt overseen by the feds themselves to divert law enforcement from the Capitol right as the Jan. 6 protest was turning violent.
Rep. Massie asked DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz last September whether the pipe bomber was an FBI informant, and the IG said he couldn’t recall.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
