A suspect has been taken into custody in connection with planting pipe bombs outside both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021.
The arrest occurred Thursday morning, bringing an end to one of the most scrutinized unsolved cases from the January 6 timeframe.
Law enforcement officials confirmed the development to the Associated Press, though formal charges have not yet been disclosed to the public.
The breakthrough comes just weeks before the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot.
For nearly five years, the FBI faced mounting criticism from lawmakers over the apparent lack of progress in identifying the individual responsible for planting what investigators determined were viable explosive devices.
Surveillance footage from the night of January 5, 2021, captured images of a person wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, mask, gloves, glasses and Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers.
The individual was seen carrying a backpack while planting the devices at the headquarters of both major political parties.
The bombs remained undetected for approximately 17 hours.
They were discovered the following afternoon on January 6, around the same time Congress convened to count electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.
That congressional session would later be suspended for several hours after supporters of President Trump entered the Capitol building and made their way into both the House and Senate chambers.
The timing of the bomb discovery coincided with these events.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris came within feet of one of the devices.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also had a close encounter with the explosives at the DNC headquarters on South Capitol Street.
Pelosi’s motorcade actually drove past one of the bombs after law enforcement had already discovered it.
A congressional report later faulted law enforcement agencies for inadequate perimeter security around the discovered devices, according to the New York Post.
Reps. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) released their report in January 2024.
The document stated that “little meaningful progress” had been achieved in the pipe bomb investigation and accused federal authorities of refusing to provide meaningful updates to Congress.
The congressional report noted that despite having “a promising array of data and … numerous persons of interest,” the FBI began redirecting resources away from the pipe bomb investigation by the end of February 2021.
This shift in priorities raised questions among lawmakers about the bureau’s commitment to solving the case.
On the same day the congressional report was published, investigators released new information to the public. This included additional video footage showing the person planting one of the bombs and an estimate placing the suspect’s height at approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall.
