FBI deputy director Dan Bongino is now distancing himself from the conspiracy theories and baseless speculation that fueled his right-wing media career after the Department of Justice announced the arrest of a suspect accused of planting pipe bombs around Washington, D.C., before the ‘stop the steal’ riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Bongino appeared to walk back his past claim that the FBI was complicit in a plot to place the bombs near the Republican and Democratic headquarters when pressed by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday.
“Listen, I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That’s clear, and one day I’ll be back in that space,” Bongino said. “But that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
Bongino’s comments mark a rare admission from a member of Donald Trump’s administration to walk back conspiracy theories and false claims about an active law enforcement investigation promoted by allies.
Last year, he said on his podcast that there was “a massive cover-up” in the case, which was an “inside job” launched by the federal government.
Earlier this year, Bongino went further, telling his audience that the FBI knew the identity of the bomber and “just doesn’t want to tell us because it was an inside job.”
“This was a setup,” he added. “I have zero doubt.”
Bongino, who now serves under FBI director and fellow former media personality Kash Patel, has also previously amplified false claims about the 2020 presidential election, claimed a “deep state” was prosecuting Republican figures, and that the Department of Justice he now works under was conspiring against the president.
His admission on Fox News that his statements were merely his “opinion” came just hours after the arrest of Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, who has been charged with transporting explosive materials across state lines and for the attempted destruction of buildings with explosives.
Cole allegedly told the FBI that he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which Trump had falsely labeled “stolen” and “rigged” against him, according to people familiar with the case speaking to NBC News.
The steps leading up to Cole’s arrest — which include meticulous searches of phone records for people in the D.C. area at the time the bombs were planted — were laid out in an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court Friday. A motive remains unclear.
“We’re going to be guided by the facts as this thing goes forward,” Bongino told Hannity.
Weeks earlier, far-right news outlet The Blaze, which was founded by Glenn Beck, published an article claiming that the suspect was a former law enforcement official identified by a computer analysis of the way the person walked. The outlet has since retracted the article.
The baseless claims exploded online, but Bongino pushed back against the allegations.
Surveillance footage from the night before the Capitol assault captured a man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black gloves, and black-and-gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf Shoes with a yellow swoosh logo near the Republican National Committee and Democratic Committee buildings.
The FBI had previously described the bombs as “viable” and said that they “could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders.” The devices were at least partially made of 1×8-inch threaded galvanized pipes, end caps, kitchen timers, wires, metal clips and homemade black powder, according to court documents.
Moments after returning to the presidency, Trump granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, broadly covering any “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
The White House official told The Independent that Trump’s “full, complete and unconditional pardon” will not let the alleged pipe bomber off the hook, noting that the president’s sweeping grant of clemency “pertained to events at or near Capitol and does not cover planting bombs at the places that aren’t the Capitol.”
