The new head of the FBI's Washington Field Office shared new insights on Tuesday into the effort to find the person responsible for planting two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill the night before the Jan. 6 riot.
Some 1,000 others have been arrested and charged in connection to the Capitol riot. But despite the massive number of manhours being devoted to finding the person who left the pipe bombs, that individual has eluded law enforcement for more than two years.
One pipe bomb was found outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, while the other was found at the Republican National Committee headquarters. Neither bomb went off, but both could have been deadly.
The FBI quickly found clues to the person they were after through a massive search of surveillance video.
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But David Sundberg, the Assistant Director in charge of the Washington Field Office, admits putting a name or face to the mysterious individual has been challenging.
"It remains that the person who placed these pipe bombs, which were viable devices left in a residential area, is hard to identify, wearing non-descript clothing, including a mask, a hood and gloves," Sundberg said.
Surveillance footage shows the mystery individual walking through the neighborhood around the RNC and DNC the night before Jan. 6.
The video shows the same person in the alley behind the RNC where one bomb was found, and in the area where the second bomb was found outside the DNC. They can be seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt and distinct Air Max Nike sneakers
Sundberg says that the FBI has poured through tens of thousands of clues.
"It has been thorough for more than 2 years now," he said. "We’ve received in excess of 500 tips from the public, we’ve conducted 1,000+ interviews, we've looked at 39,000 segments of video."
But the lengthy investigation isn't deterring him.
"The FBI has long been very good at follow through we will investigate a case and look at every fact and this one until we get to the end," Sundberg said.
The FBI is still urging the public to help find the person responsible for planting the two pipe bombs. The reward, increased earlier this year, now stands at $500,000.
