As Jan. 6 pipe bomb probe breaks wide open, Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker, others ask what government has to hide

As the probe about the pipe bomb found on Jan. 6, 2021, at Democratic National Committee headquarters continues to gain traction, Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker and others are asking an all-important question: What does the U.S. government have to hide?

What are the details?

Baker — as part his ongoing analyses regarding the truth about Jan. 6 — last week broke new ground in the pipe bomb story: He asserted that the individual who found the alleged explosive device at DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., wasn't a "passerby," as had been endlessly parroted — the person was a United States Capitol Police plainclothes officer.

Baker noted that "multiple congressional staffers familiar with the investigation" confirmed this with Blaze News in the face of the FBI stonewalling inquiries into the individual's identity.

Video posted to the YouTube channel of U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) shows the individual in question — dressed in dark clothing and wearing a backpack — casually approaching a D.C. Metropolitan Police vehicle parked at the DNC just after 1 p.m., reportedly to inform law enforcement that he spotted what appeared to be a pipe bomb, Baker noted.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

That same video also shows the person walking to the driver’s side of a black Secret Service SUV parked next to the Metro Police vehicle and speaking to those inside the Secret Service SUV, again without any apparent urgency, Baker said.

As it turns out, the alleged pipe bomb was located only 15 to 20 feet from the vehicles, Baker said. What's more, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had arrived at the DNC building in that same Secret Service SUV only about 90 minutes earlier, Baker said — a fact that didn't come to light for a full year after Jan. 6.

Why Harris — who was still a U.S. senator on that date — was taken to the DNC that morning rather than to the Capitol to participate in the 2020 Electoral College vote certification remains a mystery, Baker added.

A bigger head-scratcher, Baker said, is why Harris and other Democrats haven't exploited her proximity to what the FBI called a "viable" explosive device that “could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death" to garner sympathy and support. Assuming that pipe bomb — and another found at Republican National Committee headquarters — was part of the violence of Jan. 6, why hasn't the Biden administration used it to underscore its narrative of that day?

Other questions Baker is continuing to explore include:

• Why did a Secret Service agent and an MPD officer feel safe enough to finish their lunches before investigating the information about a bomb located only feet away after a law enforcement officer revealed its location to them?
• How did the Secret Service fail to find the pipe bomb prior to Harris' arrival at the DNC — particularly because it was placed next to a bench the night before in plain sight, as if it was meant to be found?
• Why did operators in the Capitol Police Command Center deliberately redirect CCTV cameras away from the DNC pipe bomb investigation and detonation?
• Was the DNC pipe bomb really a “viable” device, despite never-before-seen video evidence to the contrary?

Other investigative journalists weigh in

Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag penned a Saturday investigative story for Public about the discovery of the pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican HQs. Significantly, they noted that the whole thing "should have been a national scandal."

The authors said that while the pipe bombs initially were "key to the narrative that the Capitol riot was a premeditated act of domestic terrorism," for some reason they're omitted from the detailed analysis and timeline of an 841-page official report from the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 6 — and relegated only to a brief mention in an appendix.

Shellenberger and Gutentag offered what could be a possible explanation: While the FBI called the pipe bombs "viable," Kyle Seraphin — a former FBI agent who worked on the investigation — said technicians from the Joint Program Office for Countering IEDs told him the devices lacked the necessary assembly to operate.

The Public story also said the FBI released CCTV videos and photos of the pipe bomb suspect "holding a cell phone and possibly texting" — which would make it easy for the FBI to identify the cell phone user. However, Shellenberger and Gutentag revealed that data from the phone company that could have identified the suspected bomber was "mysteriously corrupted."

More from their Public report:

The FBI claims that the pipe bomb was planted at the DNC on the night of January 5, 2021. Yet given Harris’ presence at the DNC, it is very likely that the Secret Service would have conducted a security sweep, possibly with a bomb-sniffing dog, upon her arrival on January 6, when the bomb was supposedly already on the premises.

An independent security analyst who has worked for senior elected officials, including on Capitol Hill, wrote a Comprehensive Threat Analysis of the alleged pipe bombs, which Public obtained. Interviewed by Zoom, the expert, who asked that their name not be used, said, “Something had to have happened to not to have found the bomb, or it wasn’t there on the night of the 5th. Had they conducted a regular security sweep, they 100% would have found the bomb. It’s in plain sight. You’d have to be blind not to find it. And if you had a dog? Give me a break.”

The expert found it highly implausible that the Secret Service did not do a sweep. “I can’t believe the Secret Service would put Vice President some place and not do a security sweep. It’s hard to explain how bad that is.”

Still, the authors called attention to a CNN story from January 31, 2022, which cited a "law enforcement source familiar with the event" who told the network that the Secret Service "which was responsible for Harris’ protection that day, swept the interior of the building, the driveway, parking deck and entrances and exits prior to her arrival.”

In addition, Revolver published its own comprehensive investigative piece on the pipe bomb saga Thursday. It attracted the attention of Tucker Carlson, who conducted a compelling video interview with Revolver's Darren J. Beattie on the subject that went live the same day on X.

Carlson also offered an addendum to the below video interview that called attention to Baker's analysis on Blaze News from last week stating that the "passerby" who found the pipe bomb at the DNC was a U.S. Capitol Police plainclothes officer:

How are the powers that be responding?

Neither the U.S. Capitol Police nor the D.C. Metro Police immediately responded to Blaze News' request for comment on the assertions Baker outlined in his Jan. 17 pipe bomb analysis.

Shellenberger and Gutentag added in their piece for Public that "the Secret Service and the Capitol Police did not respond to our request for comment. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment and directed Public to the agency’s pipe bomb webpage and most recent statement."

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