Dan Bongino, who Donald Trump is installing as Deputy Director of the FBI, has claimed pipe bombs placed outside party headquarters on January 6 were an ‘inside job’ and accuses the agency he’ll help lead of looking the other way.
Bongino, who will be Number Two to Director Kash Patel after dedicating himself to ‘owning the libs,’ has a long history of speculating about wild conspiracy theories on his top-rated podcast.
That will give him a powerful role in Patel’s effort to remake the agency after Trump said he would fire ‘corrupt agents’ amid a government-wide purge that says it will root out ‘weaponization’ inside the department. It also gives him an oversight role in a concerning unsolved case he has blasted on air.
Bongino has returned repeatedly to speculate about the shocking discovery of pipe bombs outside the DNC and near the RNC on January 6 on his show. The FBI has yet to make any arrests, which has only fueled Bongino’s narrative.
‘The pipe bombs at the DNC where Kamala Harris was on January 6,’ Bongino said. ‘It is now clear to me that this 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,’ he said.
Bongino then referenced questions being raised by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), 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 said in the September 26, 2024 episode of the Dan Bongino Show.
Dan Bongino, who Donald Trump named assistant director of the FBI, spoke in detail about the search for the person who placed pipe bombs at the DNC while Kamala Harris was there January 6. He claims it was an ‘inside job’
The FBI has 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.
The probe came in concert with its nationwide January 6 investigations, which resulted in roughly 1,500 people being convicted. Trump pardoned all January 6 defendants on his first day in office.
Bongino’s suspicions about the bureau he’ll direct match some of the president’s. Trump was infuriated by the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago and is suing the Justice Department for damages. Trump raged about former special counsel Jack Smith inside the Oval Office Tuesday while signing an executive order to punish private attorneys who assisted him.
House Republicans released an 80-page report cataloguing ‘serious, and largely overlooked, security failure on January 6’ including the ‘delayed’ discovery of the bombs close to the two party headquarters buildings and the ‘chaotic response’ once they were found, but didn’t charge it was an ‘inside job.’
Bongino went back to the update on his September 18 show.
‘I’m telling you they are going to come out and say those pipe bombs are just a training exercise when they weren’t,’ he said.
‘I can’t trust anyone. I can’t trust anybody any more.’
He called 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.
The FBI continues to seek information on the masked, hoodie-wearing January 6 suspect captured on surveillance footage placing a pipe bomb outside the DNC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Bongino at the White House Tuesday
An explosive device is shown outside of the Republican National Committee office, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington
The opposition research group American Bridge, which has been scrutinizing Trump nominees, compiled a series of incendiary videos from Bongino’s shows, and said ‘unhinged conspiracy theorists’ make the country ‘less safe.’
Bongino has raised other theories about the 2020 elections that dovetailed with debunked claims by Trump’s former legal advisors, earning the approval of the president who continues to call the election rigged.
‘We’re basically having our votes counted by Venezuelans who are close to [Nicolás] Maduro,’ guest former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told him on the program.
‘That’s insane,’ Bongino replied.
At the White House Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about reports that FBI Director Kash Patel assured senators that a current FBI agent would be named as his deputy.
Bongino served in the Secret Service and in the NYPD, but never in the FBI so lacks that credential. Leavitt didn’t directly address Patel’s assurances, but instead used the question to attack the media and the ‘swamp.’
‘This is a man who loves his country and who has honorably served our country in ways that many people have not. He understands the depth of the corruption at these institutions with the American people re elected President Trump to shake up. And I think it’s quite despicable to see many networks in this room who have had chryons on their television screens labelling Mr. Bongino as a far-right podcaster,’ she said.
‘He is not. He is a former law enforcement agent. He is a former Secret Service agent. He put his life on the line to protect this country, and that is why the President of the United States has entrusted him for this important role. He’s also an outsider to this Washington swamp, and we often see that when outsiders are appointed to such coveted positions, a lot of people in this city get very, very nervous,’ she said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the FBI and the White House for comment on his January 6 statements.
The latest release from the FBI’s Washington Field Office seeks public assistance ‘to identify the suspect who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., in January 2021. A $500,000 reward remains in effect for information leading to the individual’s arrest and conviction.
‘The suspect placed pipe bombs in a Capitol Hill neighborhood near the RNC and the DNC ‘the night before the riots at the U.S. Capitol,’ it states.
‘Although these bombs did not detonate, it is important to remember the suspect walked along residential and commercial areas in Capitol Hill just blocks from the U.S. Capitol with viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders. Moreover, the suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves.’
‘Over the past three years, a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, data scientists, and law enforcement partners has worked thousands of hours conducting interviews, reviewing physical and digital evidence, and assessing tips from the public about who may have placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill,’ said David Sundberg, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office at the time.
He was forced out of his post in a purge January 31.
