The conservative website the Blaze published a report last month naming a female former Capitol Police officer as a “forensic match” for the person who placed pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, fanning persistent speculation on the right that the government was implicated in both the pipe bombs and the attack on the Capitol.
“This might just be the biggest scandal and conspiracy in American history,” one of the Blaze reporters, Steve Baker, wrote in sharing the story on X.
But after the arrest Thursday of a suspect who lives with his mother and works in a Northern Virginia bail bond office, the Blaze deleted its blockbuster story, adding an editor’s note that said, “we consider the values of fairness and accuracy to require retraction of this article.”
The Blaze and reporter Baker did not respond to requests for comment. On X, Baker reposted a video clip of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) saying that the media should be “reporting on the lack of diligence for the last five years at the FBI on this investigation.”
The Blaze report on Nov. 8 cited a “forensic analysis” of the former officer’s gait that it said was “a 94%-98% match to the unique stride” of the bombing suspect. Along with the gait analysis, the report relied on unnamed sources close to the investigation that it said had surfaced “evidence … that pointed toward law enforcement possibly being involved in the planting of the pipe bombs.” It also included material from a video internet sleuth identified only as Armitas to implicate the former officer in the crime.
The story was shared on social media by government figures including Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia), who oversees a House subcommittee on the events of Jan. 6, and Kari Lake, the acting chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Lake shared the story with an eyeballs emoji and a quote from it asserting that the former officer served on the “dignitary protection team” for CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Shortly after publication, the Blaze’s story was heavily edited with a correction, updates and additional information. The statement Lake highlighted about the former officer’s current job was changed: The officer did not serve on a protection team for Ratcliffe, it said, but worked as a security officer on CIA grounds. Asked for comment, Lake said: “After nearly five years, I am very pleased to see that the FBI made an arrest in this case.”
The Blaze later added a statement from the former officer’s lawyer denying the accusation its story made. “These shameful allegations are recklessly false, absurd, and defamatory,” said Steve Bunnell, a former federal prosecutor.
Elements of the story were also changed roughly two weeks after its initial publication to reflect a CBS News report that said the FBI had ruled the former officer out as a suspect because she had provided an alibi in the form of a video of her playing with puppies at the time the bombs were planted.
By Thursday afternoon, the Blaze had appended another editor’s note to the top of the story, reflecting the news of the arrest of Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. “At this point, there is no indication from the FBI,” it wrote, that the woman they had identified and implicated was a suspect, but the story remained otherwise unchanged with photos of the former police officer at the top of the story until it was deleted Thursday night.
Asked whether his client intends to take legal action against the Blaze, Bunnell said, “We have no comment at this time.”
The Blaze was not the only entity promoting the idea that the pipe bombing was an inside job or pushing the former police officer as a suspect. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, overseen by Tulsi Gabbard, circulated a memo identifying the former officer and describing allegations that she planted the pipe bombs, according to the CBS News report. The office has said it followed protocol in documenting a tip.
In a November 2024 podcast appearance, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino suggested the pipe bombs were placed as part of a secret government operation to distract from the events of Jan. 6.
“They know who planted those bombs. And I’m telling you, it is the biggest scandal in modern American history,” he said.
Fox News host Sean Hannity confronted Bongino with that quote on Thursday after the FBI’s arrest. “Listen, I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That’s clear,” Bongino responded. “And one day, I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
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