Home WebMail Friday, November 1, 2024, 04:22 AM | Calgary | -3.2°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2022-01-06T22:42:47Z | Updated: 2022-01-07T00:04:13Z

Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committees headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, when police discovered a pipe bomb outside the building, once again revealing how real the threat of violence was that day.

U.S. Capitol Police began investigating the pipe bomb outside the DNC at 1:07 p.m., according to an official timeline of events from USCP obtained by Politico, who first reported on Harris location . CBS News and NBC News confirmed the report.

According to the reported timeline, USCP and the Secret Service evacuated an unnamed protectee from the DNC at about 1:14 p.m. Politico reported that the protectee in the timeline was Harris, citing four people familiar with her movements that day, including a White House official and a former law enforcement official.

Harris, who was a senator at the time, vaguely alluded to her evacuation during a speech on Thursday, the first anniversary of the event.

On that day, I was not only vice president-elect, I was also a United States senator. And I was here at the Capitol that morning, at a classified hearing with fellow members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Hours later, the gates of the Capitol were breached, she said.

I had left. But my thoughts immediately turned not only to my colleagues, but to my staff, who had been forced to seek refuge in our office, converting filing cabinets into barricades.

The discovery of the DNC pipe bomb followed a Washington, D.C., resident finding another pipe bomb outside the Republican National Committees headquarters a few blocks away. That device was made from galvanized steel pipe with black explosive powder inside and a kitchen timer with a paper clip glued on the handle. The timer was set to 20 minutes , according to the resident.

The FBI has previously described both bombs as live, and said they could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death. The RNC bomb was disabled at 3:33 p.m., and the DNC bomb at 4:36 p.m., according to the reported timeline.

Earlier this year, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said as part of his congressional testimony that police resources were diverted from the Capitol attack to responding to the pipe bombs at both buildings. D.C. Police Inspector General Michael Bolton said that three teams left to investigate the pipe bomb threat, leaving just one team in charge of protecting the Capitol.

If those pipe bombs were intended to be a diversion, it worked, Bolton told the House Oversight Committee in May.

Harris as the vice presidential nominee and, later, as vice president-elect would occasionally use the DNC headquarters to conduct non-government business, which is standard practice for elected officials of both parties. Her presence in the building at the time the pipe bomb was found reveals that her life was endangered on Jan. 6.

The agency recently issued a new call for help in finding the suspect, who was captured on surveillance video in the area of the DNC and RNC buildings. The RNC bomb was placed in an alley behind the building, while the DNC bomb was placed by a nearby park bench.

The FBI said the bombs were planted the night before by an individual that has, at least publicly, still not been identified. The agency said it does not believe the suspect is from the D.C. area, and publicly released images and footage show the individual wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, gloves, a mask and a pair of black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow logo. The suspect was also carrying a backpack used to transport the pipe bombs.

The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the suspects identification.