Latest news with #CapitolRiots
Fox News
3 days ago
- General
- Fox News
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino claims bureau ‘closing in' on suspects who planted Jan. 6 DC pipe bombs
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino made headlines this week when he revealed the bureau was "closing in" on suspects involved in planting two pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a sign that the bureau may soon solve the nagging, four-year mystery. "The second we got in, I put a team on it and I said, 'I want answers on this,'" Bongino told "Fox & Friends." "And I'm pretty confident that we're closing in on some suspects." Law enforcement discovered the two pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committees' headquarters around the same time that thousands of rioters a few blocks away began to descend on the Capitol in protest of the 2020 election results. A faction of President Donald Trump's base has since raised questions about the timing of the pipe bomb incident and security failures surrounding it and speculated that the Biden administration was not forthright to the public about the facts of the case. Prior to being sworn in, Bongino was a leading voice perpetuating that notion. A former Secret Service agent and podcast host, Bongino told listeners of his popular right-wing show that the FBI lied about the pipe bomb incident because the bureau did not want people to know it was an "inside job." Now as deputy director, Bongino is facing pressure from supporters and critics alike to release new details about the case. Video footage released by the FBI shows an unidentified person placing the pipe bombs near the two headquarters more than 16 hours before law enforcement found them. The suspect is seen wearing a gray hoodie, Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers, a face mask, glasses, and gloves. Prior to the administration change in January, the FBI also unveiled a minor last-minute detail that the suspect's height was about 5-foot-7. A woman who is a Capitol Hill resident alerted a security guard that she spotted the first pipe bomb in an alley behind the RNC headquarters while she was out retrieving her laundry around 1 p.m. Security footage showed her running from the area of the washer and dryer and notifying the guard. That set off a furious search that led officers at the DNC headquarters to discover a second pipe bomb there. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general report published last year revealed the two explosive devices were "viable" and "could have detonated, causing innocent bystanders to be seriously injured or killed." The bombs included one-hour timers. An FBI official said they did not believe the timers could have detonated the bombs since the time had already elapsed when the bombs were found, according to the DHS report. That report and an investigative report released by House Republicans revealed that then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at one point came within feet of the pipe bomb by the DNC. The FBI has said it has received more than 600 tips, and it continues to offer a $500,000 reward for any successful leads. The House Republicans' report noted the FBI initially investigated a person who searched on the internet for "pipe bomb DC" and a person who had recently purchased the Nike shoes seen in the surveillance footage. The report noted, however, that the pace of the FBI's inquiry dropped off after about a month as a result of leads drying up.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
D.C. leaders walk a tightrope through Trump's storm of grievances
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is certainly not alone. The D.C. government stands right there alongside the leading universities, major television networks, top-drawer law firms, federal judges and migrants seeking humanitarian relief that have landed on President Donald Trump's bad side. Oh, yes, add to that list the federal prosecutors who pursued U.S. Capitol rioters and 'sanctuary cities.'
Fox News
5 days ago
- General
- Fox News
FBI 'closing in' on suspects in case of DC pipe bombs placed on eve of Jan 6
The FBI is ramping up its investigation into pipe bombs planted in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021. One top official is now suggesting that after four years, the bureau is getting close to a major break in the case. "I want answers on this, and I'm pretty confident that we're closing in on some suspects," FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told "Fox & Friends" Thursday, noting the case is a top priority. The FBI renewed its focus on the unsolved case earlier this year. In January, investigators released new video footage showing the person who planted the bombs outside the headquarters of both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. Bongino criticized what he described as a lack of attention to the case during the Biden administration, despite the broader focus on the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, for which over 1,000 people were arrested and convicted. "We were told by partisan actors out there, this was the insurrection, the world was [going to] fall apart, and no one seemed to show any interest in this case," he argued, adding that he and FBI Director Kash Patel have made the pipe bomb investigation a priority for their department. Besides the video footage, in January the FBI also released more details about the suspect's physical characteristics. They believe the individual to be about 5-foot, 7-inches and to have worn a grey hoodie, face mask, black gloves and Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes. Investigators claim they've followed hundreds of leads, reviewed thousands of video files, and conducted over 1,000 interviews in the case. Bongino emphasized the importance of public involvement and said social media is a vital tool for generating new case leads. "Every time I put a tweet out, we get tips. We got a fascinating tip on one of these cases. One of the three," Bongino said, referring to three high-profile cases: the 2021 pipe bombs, the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion and the cocaine discovered in the White House in 2023. "I don't [want to] say which one, but I'm pretty confident that we're going to close out one of them, hopefully, soon." Although no one was injured in the 2021 pipe bomb incident, authorities say the attack could have been deadly. Then Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the DNC's offices when the pipe bomb was discovered. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also passed by the bomb before it was discovered and safely removed by authorities. The FBI is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
New York Times
5 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Trump's Fiercest War Is on Reality Itself
Beginning June 23, this newsletter will be published on Monday mornings. In a recent development obscured by President Trump's many other provocations, several news organizations reported that his administration was considering a $5 million payout to relatives of Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran fatally shot by the police during the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the Capitol. Babbitt belonged to the violent mob that smashed its way into the building and bloodied the uniformed men and women trying to protect terrified members of Congress. She was crawling through a shattered glass door between her and the House floor when the bullet struck her. Her death is a terrible thing, but prosecutors cleared the officer who fired at her of any wrongdoing, saying the officer had reason to believe that he was acting in defense of himself and those lawmakers. So why is the Justice Department not only settling the lawsuit that Babbitt's relatives filed but also mulling an apology in the millions? Because Trump's alternate reality demands it. Because that is how you turn truth entirely on its head. You don't simply challenge what really happened at the Capitol, which is that lawless hooligans in thrall to Trump's delusions attempted a kind of coup. You chip-chip-chip away at it in so many ways over so much time and with such unflagging frequency that many people who thought they understood what they were seeing aren't wholly sure anymore — or give up trying to make sense of it. Trump recast a day of shame as a 'day of love.' The rioters became 'patriots' and Babbitt a martyr. As soon as Trump returned to the Oval Office, he pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people criminally charged in connection with the rioting. He even floated the idea of a compensation fund for them. Everybody gets a prize! To live in fiction, commit to it. That's the moral not merely of Trump and Jan. 6 but of Trump, period. Yesteryear's hand-wringing about whether to label his individual falsehoods 'lies' and those periodic tallies of his misstatements now seem quaint; they don't do justice to the scope and audacity of what he's up to. Nor does the occasional current chatter about 'propaganda.' Trump is engaged in a multifront, multipronged attack on any and every version of events that impedes his goals and impugns his glory. It makes the spin control of presidents past look like child's play. Politicians routinely don masks, twist facts and peddle fables — President Joe Biden's pretense of undiminished vigor and acuity is a recent and egregious example of that. But Trump's machinations and manipulations go beyond discrete feints and specific ruses. They're in an unscrupulous league of their own. Consider his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News over a segment of '60 Minutes' just before the 2024 election that, in Trump's view, put a halo on Kamala Harris. That sum may be the stuff of comedy, but Trump's pattern of aggressive and often ludicrous litigation against media organizations is more melodrama. It's meant to make the cost of displeasing him so steep — all those court dates, all those attorneys' fees — that journalists no longer risk his displeasure. It's a prophylactic against unflattering coverage. So are other acts of intimidation. His administration is trying to exile The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One. It reallocated media real estate at the Pentagon from news organizations it didn't like to ones it considered friendlier. It moved to sideline the White House Correspondents' Association, announcing that it would take charge of determining which news organizations were represented at key White House events. That's how Brian Glenn, who is a correspondent for the right-wing cable channel Real America's Voice and also Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend, ended up at Trump's meeting in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Glenn used that coveted access to berate Zelensky for not wearing a suit. Meantime, Trump appointed a new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, who wears a lapel pin that's a gold medallion in the shape of Trump's head and has gone after Trump's enemies in a fashion that grossly politicizes a regulatory body that's supposed to be nonpartisan. He has ordered investigations into PBS, into NPR, into Disney, into Comcast. The reasons vary; the bullying doesn't. And it extends to the Trump administration's assault on scientific organizations, academic institutions and law firms — Trump clearly wants to depopulate, discredit and disarm the ranks of experts and advocates potentially critical of him. Trump's determination to script an epically celebratory teleplay of his presidency also includes the careful casting of supporting players. He seemingly chose many of his cabinet members for their poise, primping and eagerness to appear on camera and praise him effusively. His administration has beckoned Trump-besotted newbies into the scrum of journalists in the White House briefing room. It has also used social media and a new website to pump out gobs of pro-Trump content. 'The White House is deploying its platforms and personnel in ways that often feel more like how a modern media company would operate than a national government,' wrote Neal Rothschild in a recent article in Axios. The article's headline: 'Trump's White House is the hottest right-wing media outlet.' And Trump's White House is all about exultant labels and elaborate staging. The sweeping spending package that he's hawking is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Its proposed $1,000 bequests to new parents are 'Trump accounts.' His tariffs heralded Liberation Day. If history is written by the victors, the present is fabricated by those who throw themselves most ruthlessly and shamelessly into the storytelling. Trump and his principal abettors are just about peerless in that regard. Rather than own up to the administration's error in consigning Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to a gulag in El Salvador, Trump falsely and stubbornly insists that Abrego Garcia has the name of the gang MS-13 tattooed on his hand. He showcases accusations of domestic violence in Abrego Garcia's past. He and his aides rework the details so that Trump is without blame or blemish. Just as they've done with Jan. 6. That day is a searing indictment of Trump — so he inverts it. Babbitt is reborn as an innocent. The hellions around her are a heavenly choir. That song they're now singing? It's an elegy for honesty. Forward this newsletter to friends … … and they can sign up for themselves here. It's published every Thursday. For the Love of Sentences In The Wall Street Journal, Dan Neil recounted a spin in the 2025 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster convertible that was less test drive than love affair. The car's color, called satin iridescent sapphire, 'infuses the carbon-fiber body panels with a hitherto undreamt, scarcely believable shade of teal, its polarized highlights shifting from indigo to forest-green in the brilliant sun like the chromatophores of the world's sexiest octopus,' he wrote. He also acknowledged the mismatch of a chariot with few miles on it and a charioteer with many: 'For a man of my age and grooming to rumble through downtown Palm Springs alone in a drop-top Aston Martin the color of Superman's eyes … Well, it suggests I'm looking for a party. If anything, I'm just looking for a bathroom.' (Thanks to Trevor Hale of Washington and Saul Himelfarb of Baltimore for nominating this.) Also in The Journal, Kyle Smith found a disequilibrium in 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' starring (and sanctifying) Tom Cruise: 'Too often, the self-serving mission of making Mr. Cruise look cool clashes with the audience-serving mission of making sense. The balance between vanity and sanity leans the wrong way.' (Mary Stagaman, Cincinnati) In The Times, Bruce Handy spotted the same tilt: 'We get to see Mr. Cruise dangle off not one but two biplanes and sprint back and forth across the streets of London with arms pumping manfully when he could have taken an Uber. For several scenes in which the necessities of plot and beefcake delivery force him to strip down to his boxer briefs, we also get to marvel at his perfectly toned senior body, which would be the envy at any recreational facility, not just the pickleball courts at the Villages.' (Abigail Pogrebin, Manhattan, and Mark Van Loon, Hamilton, Mont., among others) Also in The Times, Emily Keegin appraised the recent redo of the Oval Office: 'Gilded rococo wall appliqués, nearly identical to the ones at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, are stuck to the fireplace and office walls with the same level of aesthetic consideration a child gives her doll's face before covering it in nail polish.' (Ned Warner, Belgrade, Maine, and Mary Paterno, Kutztown, Penn., among many others) And Maureen Dowd identified the main dish at Trump's dinner to reward the top investors in his memecoin as 'pan-seared influence peddling with a citrus reduction.' (Daniel Woolf, Yarker, Ontario, and Paul Archipley, Mukilteo, Wash., among many others) In a column published in both Air Mail and The Guardian, Marina Hyde detailed the extravagance of Lauren Sánchez's bachelorette party in Paris: 'There was also an ostentatiously open-top boat ride down the Seine, where I think the ladies went to view the floating corpse of a trend once known as 'quiet luxury.'' (Peter Frank, Manhattan) In his newsletter, Discoursted, Louis Pisano wondered about an honor given to Sánchez in Cannes, France, where she arrived on the mega-yacht belonging to her beau, Jeff Bezos: 'You can't ride in on a carbon-belching sea fortress and accept an award for climate advocacy. That's like setting a forest fire and accepting a plaque for your marshmallow-roasting technique.' (Joe Doggett, West Dover, Vt.) In The Marin Independent Journal, Jackie Burrell revisited the 2023 novel 'What Never Happened,' by Rachel Howzell Hall, whose protagonist returns to Catalina Island a few decades after her family was murdered there: 'What awaits isn't exactly sunshine and sand — more like buried secrets, a violent home invasion and a serial killer — and there's no way to escape, except by reading faster.' (Michael Stryker, Kentfield, Calif.) In The New Yorker, Claire Malone measured the warring tugs on Bezos, who owns both Amazon and The Washington Post: 'At a time when mainstream media outlets are widely distrusted, the number of people who want to pay for quality news in America is distinctly smaller than the number of those who want to order two-ply toilet paper that will arrive the next day.' (Madelyn Weiss, Berkeley, Calif.) And in Harper's, John Jeremiah Sullivan noted that Ron Chernow, the author of a major new book about Mark Twain, belongs to a small club of 'our great Biographers of the Great': 'On some future day he, Walter Isaacson and Jon Meacham will write biographies of one another, and the faces on Mount Rushmore will simultaneously explode.' (John Jacoby, North Andover, Mass.) To nominate favorite bits of recent writing from The Times or other publications to be mentioned in 'For the Love of Sentences,' please email me here and include your name and place of residence. On a Personal Note 'Somebody says apps,' wrote Rick Methot, of Hamilton, N.J., 'and I picture mozzarella sticks.' That was one of many responses I received to my lament last week about the exasperating effect of all the digital-age innovations and wireless efficiencies that promise to smooth our days. I seemed to hit a nerve, especially among readers around my age (60) and older. Methot is 80. In that newsletter, I recounted my recent iPhone upgrade, all the headaches that came with it and all the annoyances that attend other gizmos, gadgets and ostensible shortcuts. But your emails reminded me that I left out a lot. Such as the enigma of the contemporary car dashboard, with which our wondrous smartphones are supposed to sync. (The 'supposed' in that sentence carries enormous weight.) I've yet to decode much of my dashboard hieroglyphics; I'm pretty sure it can iron my dress shirts and make paella with the right inputs. I just need to spend more time with the 1,924-page instruction manual. I also didn't mention those extensive online questionnaires that precede an appointment with a physician, a veterinarian, a mechanic. They demand information that you've provided a dozen previous times, and then you show up and are asked to verify the answers in a process that takes as long as it would have if you'd skipped the prior survey altogether. I omitted 'mobile' bank deposits. It's easier to photograph the vainest diva in Hollywood than to get the right shot of your check, because your camera is too close or too far or too angled or too something else, and the check isn't centered or the surface on which you've set it is too light or too dark. But a few of you correctly noted that none of that grief comes close to erasing the advantages of our modern hacks. Conrad Macina, 77, of Landing, N.J., wrote: 'When you replaced your iPhone you replaced your telephone, camera, address book, calculator, photo albums, dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, radio, television, record player, newspaper, language teacher, light switches and much more — simultaneously. Yes, this sort of change can be a pain, but it's a lot easier than it was when you had to replace each item individually.' That's indisputably true. My point wasn't and isn't that we're worse off. It's that these conveniences are never as convenient as they're cracked up to be. As for those of you who observed that I could easily have forgone the glitchy app-controlled lightbulbs that I described, I have a one-word retort: dimmers. If a lamp doesn't have one but such a bulb remedies that, I'm in, no matter how much troubleshooting I incur. There's too little kindness in this world not to seize the cosmetic mercy of softer lighting. Thank you for being a subscriber Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. Have feedback? Send me a note at bruni-newsletter@
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Kash Patel claims January 6th revelations will 'surprise' Americans
FBI Director Kash Patel (pictured) has teased that the bureau's upcoming findings into whether informants were at the scene of the January 6 Capitol riots will 'surprise and shock' the American public. The FBI director sat down in an exclusive interview with Fox News' chief political anchor Bret Baier that aired on the network's Special Report Wednesday, when he discussed the agency's investigation into the riots. 'People have had questions about January 6th, whether or not there were FBI sources - not agents, sources - on the ground during January 6. And I told you I would get you the definitive answer to that,' Patel said. 'And we have, and we are in the process again of working with our partners to divulge that information - and it's coming,' he vowed. He also noted that the answer about the FBI's involvement in the Capitol riot may 'surprise and shock people because of what past FBI leaders have said about it.' Former FBI Director Christopher Wray had previously dodged questions from Congress about the agency's role in the Capitol riots. But a damning report released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz (pictured) last year found that the FBI had more than two dozen confidential human sources in the crowd outside the Capitol - and three were assigned by the bureau to be at the protest. Of those three, one illegally entered the Capitol building, and the other two entered the restricted area around the Capitol. The report also noted that none of the confidential sources were authorized to enter the Capitol or break the law or 'encourage others to commit illegal acts.' But, it claimed there was one confidential human source who was in contact with the leadership of far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers, and were aware of plans discussed by the Proud Boys to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Confidential human sources work with the FBI to offer information and insights about the inner workings of organizations threatening the country, such as criminal, terrorist and espionage networks. According to the DOJ, these informants can be cashed out for the information they pass along to the feds. When news of the report spread in December, Vice President JD Vance pointed out that none of those confidential human sources who entered the Capitol have been prosecuted. 'For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy theory months ago,' he noted. Now, however, Patel says the report - entitled the FBI's Handling of its Confidential Human Sources and Intelligence Collection Efforts in the Lead Up to the Jan 6, 2021 Electoral Certification - is 'definitely a piece of the truth.' The FBI director was sworn in promising to increase transparency at the federal law enforcement agency, which he had previously accused of covering up its own crimes as he derided the agency as 'one of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State.' Part of that goal, Patel told Baier Wednesday, was to give Americans the answers they 'deserve.' In that vein, he noted that there are also 'answers coming' in other investigations - including the pipe bombs placed outside of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee just one day before the Capitol riot. The FBI has previously released video of the alleged suspect from 2021. The latest video release, from January 2 of this year, shows grainy security camera video of the masked, hoodie-wearing suspect, who is difficult to identify. Meanwhile, House Republicans released an 80-page report cataloguing 'serious, and largely overlooked, security failure on January 6' i ncluding the 'delayed' discovery of the bombs close to the two party headquarters buildings and the 'chaotic response' once they were found. Patel's number two at the bureau, Dan Bongino (pictured), has since claimed the bomb scare was an 'inside job.' 'I can say with almost absolute certainty from a whistleblower who was there who strongly believes it was a government contractor who planted those bombs to set up a fake assassination plot on Kamala Harris to basically generate sympathy, to shut down people from questioning the vote on January 6,' Bongino said in a September episode of his podcast. He then went on to reference questions raised by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, ticking through questions on his hand while recording the episode. 'Videos are disappearing. Nobody seems to want to know who it is. Why would the FBI not want to know who it is? Because if they put out a video showing you who it is and someone recognizes them, this whole thing's going to blow wide open,' he claimed. 'I'm telling you they are going to come out and say those pipe bombs are just a training exercise when they weren't,' Bongino continued. 'I can't trust anyone. I can't trust anybody any more,' he said, calling the pipe bomb attack 'the biggest political scandal of our time.' 'It is a story nobody wants to talk about, which is weird, because if the insurrection they claim is true, why wouldn't Kamala Harris want to talk about nearly being killed by a pipe bomb during the insurrection?' Bongino wondered. 'Why does she not want to talk about this? Because my story is true. Those pipe bombs were put there as Plan A if the Republicans on certification day in front of an entire national media audience on the House floor ... objected and started talking about the problems in the election,' he said. In addition to the two investigations related to the Capitol riots, Patel said the public will soon also have answers about the cocaine found in the White House during the Biden administration. It was discovered just two days after recovering drug addict Hunter Biden had left with his father and family for their July 4th holiday weekend. A Secret Service investigation into the drugs was closed in less than two weeks due to a 'lack of evidence' as security footage was not able to determine the owner. 'Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,' it said in a statement. The Biden family was away from Washington at the time of the discovery of the cocaine took place - and have repeatedly denied the drugs came from any of their family members. New information will also be released about the FBI's investigation into the alleged connections between Trump and Russia following the 2016 election, Patel said as exclusively revealed that a contractor allegedly made false claims to Congress about the origins of the probe. Nellie Ohr was first accused of falsely testifying to Congress in a newly declassified FBI document from 2019. It claims she falsely testified that she did not have any knowledge of the investigation into Trump's connections with Russia, and that she lied when she denied sharing her research on Russia with individuals outside of her company. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley now says she 'showed contempt for congressional oversight and the American people.'
