The January 6 bomber—the person who placed the pipe bombs outside DNC and RNC headquarters the night before the January 6, 2021 insurrection—is still at large. This past June, Republicans (yes, R’s) in Congress conducted an interview with Steven D'Antuono, the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO), regarding this investigation:
Republicans Release New Information On January 6 Pipe Bomb Investigation [House Judiciary Committee Press Release — June 14, 2023]
I didn’t see this news item at the time. It probably received little coverage due to the general assumption that the Republican-led investigation of January 6 (i.e. Republicans investigating themselves...) was a sham. But I recently came across the press release (which contains a lot of content from the interview) and found it newsworthy. Here are some of the key points, as well as my perspective on how they relate to the larger investigation.
Suggestion that the bombs were diversionary (were not intended to detonate)
The interview discusses the theory that the bombs were placed for diversionary purposes only—that they were intended to be discovered, and to cause security personnel to be pulled away from the Capitol, but were not supposed to actually detonate. Apparently, the timing mechanism was a 1-hour kitchen timer, which would not suffice for an overnight placement scenario:
Mr. Massie. Well, let me ask you this: Do you think it was technically possible for a kitchen timer . . . that has [a] 1-hour duration . . . to detonate a bomb 17 hours later?
[D’Antuono, former FBI Washington office] A. No, I don't. And I saw the same kitchen timer as you. I agree. I don't know when they were supposed to go off. Maybe they weren't supposed to go off. We can't—we don't know. ...
FBI Washington head at time of investigation uncertain if FBI had interviewed person who found the bomb at DNC
Mr. D’Antuono, who as the press release states, “oversaw the WFO's investigations into the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, including the placement of pipe bombs near the headquarters of the DNC and RNC”, was unable to confirm if the FBI had interviewed the person(s) who discovered the bomb at the DNC. (The wording seems to suggest, but does not confirm, that the FBI did interview the person who found the bomb at the RNC.)
Q. So just to . . . put a fine point on it, you do not know whether they interviewed the person that discovered . . . the [bomb] at the DNC?
A. I don't know.
Mr. D'Antuono conceded that it would be 'investigation 101' to interview the individuals who discovered the bombs, yet he was unable to confirm whether the FBI had taken this basic investigative step.
He explained:
Mr. Massie. So – but the person who found – you either haven't identified the person who found the second pipe bomb, or did you?
A. I – honestly, sir, I don't know the granularity of everything my agents and analysts did in that matter. It's just – it's a whole host of stuff that's going on. As the [Assistant Director in Charge], as like any senior leader, I'm getting briefed on things, and that part never came up, so –
[emphasis original]
The press release indicates Republicans felt the investigation was being conducted ineptly.
From the introduction to the press release:
Mr. D'Antuono's testimony provided new information about the FBI's investigation into the pipe bombs and reinforces our concerns about the FBI's handling of this matter.
They’re not wrong.
Indeed—If the bombs were distraction only, FBI MUST interview the people who discovered them.
It is clear that if indeed the bombs were not intended to detonate, but were intended only to be discovered in time to pull security away from the Capitol, then that plan would require more than just planting the bombs: It would require a mechanism for ensuring they are discovered at the desired time. It becomes critical to interview the people who discovered the bombs. They may have been part of the conspiracy! Or, they may have interacted with someone who was part of it, who deliberately alerted them to the bombs and then disappeared.
It is unforgivable for the FBI agent overseeing the investigation to not know whether or not the person who discovered at least one of the two bombs was interviewed.
Given the ineptitude of the FBI overseer, it is a reasonable working assumption that the investigation into January 6, including but not limited to the bomber, was being conducted under significant impediments, for almost two years—at the minimum.
But...It’s D’Antuono! Don’t you read Wheeler??
Yes, I do tend to read Marcy Wheeler.
(I find that her conclusions often miss the forest for the trees, but I read her for her facts.)
I’m aware that in the wake of the much-discussed Washington Post report that the FBI delayed the investigation of high-level January 6 conspirators for a year, Ms. Wheeler rode to the rescue (of AG Garland) with the declaration that the problem was entirely due to a Mr. Steve D’Antuono, former FBI Washington Field Office Head.
Emptywheel, June 19, 2023: THE WAPO SHOWS THERE SHOULD BE MORE SCRUTINY OF STEVE D’ANTUONO
This is the same Mr. D’Antuono we just heard from (who, according to Ms. Wheeler, left the FBI in November of last year). So he oversaw much of the January 6 investigation for almost two years. According to Ms. Wheeler, he repeatedly delayed the investigation, presumably because he’s a Trump supporter.
So does the blame fall to Mr. D’Antuono (during his time with the FBI), but go no further up the chain of DOJ leadership?
Unfortunately, no.
And this is one of the “missing the forest for the trees” points where I disagree with Ms. Wheeler.
If D’Antuono were the problem, a determined leader in the FBI or DOJ would re-assign and replace him with someone who would get the job done.
That this did not happen in almost two years is an indictment of DOJ leadership.
Where does this leave us?
34 months in and we still don’t have the bomber. This, despite the fact that 800 of his (or her?) closest friends are in jail, and leads on additional persons of interest can be obtained from any or all of: daily news coverage; the list of speakers for the 2020 Republican National Convention; or DailyKos.
Special Counsel Smith has charged Trump, but only Trump, as a conspirator in the January 6th insurrection. Smith may have flipped Meadows, or, as Marcy Wheeler herself writes, Meadows may just be lying to everyone about everything, all the time.
Working on the same schedule as the DOJ but with approximately one-bajillionth the budget, Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis has indicted 18 conspirators and is securing guilty pleas at a fast clip.
“But Will, Georgia’s RICO laws! You don’t understand how Georgia’s RICO laws differ from RICO laws at the federal level!”
That’s true. I don’t.
But I do understand large-scale failure when I see it.
The nation deserves progress in the January 6th case—much more progress than we have had so far. And since we haven’t had it, we deserve a change in DOJ leadership—at a minimum, to someone who is willing to make staffing changes in the FBI/DOJ ranks to bring in people who will get the job done.