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FBI Deputy Director dan bongino He is now distancing himself from the conspiracy theories and baseless speculation that fueled his right-wing media career after the Justice Department Announced the arrest of a suspect Accused of planting pipe bombs around Washington, DC ahead of the ‘Stop the Steal’ riots on January 6, 2021.
Pressed by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, Bongino appeared to walk back his previous claim that the FBI was involved in a plot to plant bombs near Republican and Democratic headquarters.
“Listen, Shawn, in the past I have been paid for my opinion. That’s clear, and one day I will be back in that spot,” Bongino said. “But right now I’m not paid for that. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we investigate based on facts.”
Bongino’s comments represent a rare admission from a member Donald Trump’s administration Retraction of conspiracy theories and false claims about active law enforcement investigations promoted by allies.
Last year, he said on his podcast that there was a “massive cover-up” in the case, an “inside job” initiated by the federal government.
Earlier this year, Bongino went further, telling his audience that the FBI knew the identity of the attacker and “didn’t want to tell us because it was an inside job.”
He added, “It was a setup.” “I have no doubt.”
Bongino, who now works under FBI Director and fellow former media personality Kash Patel, has previously made false claims about the 2020 presidential election, claiming that a “deep state” was prosecuting Republican figures, and that the Justice Department he now works under was plotting against the President.
His admission on Fox News that his statements were merely his “opinions” 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 attempting to destroy buildings with explosives.
According to people familiar with the matter, Cole reportedly told the FBI that he believes conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which Trump labeled “stolen” and “rigged” against him. Speaking to NBC News.
The steps taken to arrest Cole — including a careful search of the phone records of people in the D.C. area at the time the bomb was planted — were described in an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court on Friday. A motive remains unclear.
“We will be guided by the facts as this thing moves forward,” Bongino told Hannity.
A few weeks ago, the far-right news outlet The Blaze, founded by Glenn Beck, published an article claiming that the suspect was a former law enforcement officer, identified by computer analysis of the way the man walked. The outlet has since retracted the article.
Unfounded claims surfaced online, but Bongino denied the allegations.
Surveillance footage from the night before the Capitol attack showed 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 they “could seriously injure or kill innocent bystanders.” According to court documents, the devices were made at least in part from 1×8-inch threaded galvanized pipe, end caps, kitchen timers, wire, metal clips and homemade black powder.
Moments after returning to the presidency, Trump granted pardons to nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, largely covering “crimes related to the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
A White House official told The Independent that Trump’s “full, complete and unconditional pardon” would not let the alleged Pipe bomber off the hook, noting that the president’s blanket pardon “relates to incidents at or near the Capitol and does not include planting bombs in locations that are not the Capitol.”