FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to divulge findings from the bureau’s years-long January 6 pipe bomb investigation under questioning before a House panel on Wednesday.
During his five minutes to question Wray before the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) asked Wray when the FBI plans to respond to a letter about the probe, which has a $500,000 reward for information leading to a suspect’s arrest.
“I will work with the department to make sure we can figure out what information we can provide,” Wray said. “As you know, this is a very active, ongoing investigation and there are some restrictions on that.”
Wray rejected Massie’s suggestion that classified information may be holding up any disclosures, stressing that it is rather “an issue of commenting on ongoing criminal investigations, which is something that by longstanding department policy we are restricted in doing.”
Why doesn't Director Wray have answers about the January 6th pipe-bomb investigation?
🎥 : @RepThomasMassie pic.twitter.com/mBJUcMQajG
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 12, 2023
A suspect, seen in surveillance video only as a hooded figure carrying a backpack, has yet to be publicly identified more than two and a half years after federal authorities say a pair of pipe bombs were planted outside the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) and Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) offices in Washington, D.C.
Authorities found the devices on January 6, which is when rioters breached the U.S. Capitol and disrupted lawmakers as they worked to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Massie pushed Wray for answers on how law enforcement became aware of the “second” pipe bomb placed next to a bench outside the DNC headquarters, which reportedly prompted the evacuation of then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from the building.
The congressman played a video that he said lawmakers had “found” that “miraculously” appears to show a masked individual with a backpack approaching a D.C. police vehicle and informing officers inside about the device, with the security detail for Harris in an SUV parked right next to them. Within a minute they got out of the vehicles and approached the pipe bomb roughly 30 feet away, Massie said.
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“Miraculously, I say, because it was at specifically the precise time to cause a maximum distraction from the events going on at the Capitol,” Massie added.
In response to a question about whether this individual would be a suspect if he or she found the pipe bomb, Wray said he did not want to “speculate” about specific individuals. “I will tell you we have done thousands of interviews, reviewed something like 40,000 video files of which this is one, assessed 500-something tips, reviewed the devices,” he added.
Massie asked Wray if the FBI interviewed the masked individual in the video he showed. The director did not answer him directly, saying, “We have conducted all logical investigative steps and interviewed all logical interviews at this point.”
Capping their exchange on the pipe bombs, Massie said, “It’s been 900 days. You need to tell us what you found, because we’re finding stuff you haven’t released into the public.”