(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The person named by Blaze Media reporter Steve Baker as a possible suspect in the Jan. 5/6, 2021, pipe bombs case has vigorously denied the allegations against her, calling them “false, absurd, and defamatory.”
That person, former Capitol Police officer and current CIA security guard Shauni Kerkhoff, was accused by Baker and the Blaze as being the possible pipe bomber based on circumstantial evidence.
For instance, Baker reported that it had a “veteran analyst” run Kerkhoff through gait recognition software, which analyzes how someone walks. The software reportedly found that the suspect’s gait, seen on FBI surveillance footage, is a “94%-98% match” to her. Blaze also reported that the FBI traced a DC Metrorail SmarTrip card to Kerkhoff’s neighbors, putting agents right outside of her doorstep.
Of course, neither the gait analysis nor the SmartTrip card proves that Kerkhoff was the bomber. And on Friday, the Washington Post published a statement from her attorney that rebukes the Blaze’s unconfirmed report.
“These shameful allegations are recklessly false, absurd, and defamatory. Ms. Kerkhoff categorically denies them,” the attorney, former Justice Department prosecutor Steve Bunnell, told the Post.
The statement from Kerkhoff’s camp follows DOJ special attorney Ed Martin also saying that the former Capitol Police officer wasn’t suspect. Additionally, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Thursday that “some of the media reporting regarding prior persons of interest is grossly inaccurate and serves only to mislead the public.”
Congressman Massie,
When Director Patel and I entered on duty in our leadership positions in the FBI we had our hands full, but we were happy to be part of the President’s team, and we still are.
Despite the multitude of challenges we faced, one of our first initiatives was to… https://t.co/wHiCfYUOuc pic.twitter.com/sm64JKIZ2m— Dan Bongino (@FBIDDBongino) November 13, 2025
Blaze has already had to issue several corrections to its reporting.
For instance, the Blaze initially implied that it was the actual pipe bomber who used Kerkhoff’s neighbor’s SmarTrip card on the night of Jan. 5, when the pipe bombs may have been placed near the RNC and DNC headquarters. In fact, it was the neighbor’s friend who used the SmarTrip card, and he was back in Falls Church, Virginia before the actual suspect is seen on surveillance footage released by the FBI. The FBI has cleared both the neighbor and his friend as suspects.
Blaze also initially reported that Kerkhoff works on CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s security detail, but had to run a correction after the agency clarified that she only works campus security.
It’s unclear if the publication reached out to Kerkhoff for comment before running its story. The Blaze has since published her denial. Blaze editor in chief Christopher Bedford said he was pulled over by local police after stopping to observe her home the night before publication. He was allowed to leave.
Pipe Bomb Case History
As Headline USA revealed in March 2024, the FBI had a suspect identified by Jan. 10, 2021 in the pipe bomb case, but never made any arrests.
FBI records released in September revealed that agents didn’t interview the woman who discovered a pipe bomb near the RNC around 12:40 p.m. on Jan. 6 until days later. That woman, former counterterrorism analyst and then-Commerce Department worker Karlin Younger, said she found the bomb while doing laundry.
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. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., has said that it may be impossible to successfully prosecute the pipe bomber, even if he or she is ever arrested.
“Here’s what a good criminal defense attorney’s going to say: If you identified the individual who’s believed to place the bomb, then hours go by, and you had a search by the Secret Service at the DNC and the dog didn’t find the explosive—so clearly, the device [the defense attorney’s] client might have left there wasn’t the device that was determined to be the pipe bomb, because it wasn’t picked up by the bomb-sniffing dog,” Griffith argued in March 2024.
Blaze Reporter Steve Baker’s Dubious Journalism
Baker was the lead reporter on the Blaze’s unconfirmed pipe bomb story. Baker has a long history of reporting dubious and downright false information.
In August 2024, for instance, he reported that the alleged pipe bomber seemingly interacting with Capitol Police while walking around DC the night of Jan. 5, 2021. However, that turned out to be false. The pipe bomb suspect seen walking by the Capitol Hill Club was not the same person as someone who walked towards Capitol Police vehicles minutes later.
I've been over this before, but for the uninitiated: I didn't pay much attention to Baker until Butler, when he reported that a sniper shot Crooks from 448 yds. He said he "had the data from the scope." It was a fake story. The sniper was on the bard behind Trump ~150 yds away
🧵 https://t.co/fj8oJZyKWF pic.twitter.com/dO2vnxQ8I8— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 8, 2025
In that blunder, one of Baker’s sources was former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, who is also a source in his story naming the supposed pipe bomb suspect. Seraphin is currently being sued for his own blunder—baselessly accusing FBI Director Kashyap Patel’s girlfriend of being an Israeli intelligence asset. Seraphin’s defense is that he was joking when he said that.
A month before reporting a fake pipe bomb story, Baker reported in July 2024 that a Secret Service counter-sniper shot the would-be assassin at Butler, Pennsylvania, from 448 yards away. In fact, the counter-sniper who shot the would-be assassin was about 150 yards away. Baker never ran a correction on his false report.
Additionally, Baker has claimed to have evidence that the Pentagon authorized “directed energy weapons” to be used during the 2020 leftist riots, and that such weapons may also have been used on Jan. 6, 2021. Baker has yet to provide any evidence of this.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
