Report: Identity of J6 Pipe Bomb Suspect to Be Revealed Following National Security Review; [Update: Suspect Identified]

Original article here

Blaze News investigative reporters Steve Baker and Joseph Hanneman claim to have identified the suspect in the January 6 pipe bomb case, but are waiting on federal authorities to review their conclusion before going public. [ The suspect has been identified as former Capitol Police officer, now CIA employee Shauni Kerkhoff, 31. See update below].

Baker and Hanneman have worked for years to identify the individual who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021.

The FBI recently released higher quality video of the female suspect that includes previously unreleased footage and longer clips of her movements, providing reporters clearer evidence to analyze.

According to the Blaze, the suspect is a high level government employee at a three-letter agency who previously served with the Capitol Police.

“This is a massive, massive scandal,” Glenn Beck, co-founder of Blaze Media, declared on his talk show Wednesday.

Baker told Beck that gait analysis software had identified the suspect with 94 percent accuracy, while human intelligence experts had expressed even higher confidence in the identification.

Forensic gait analysis — the scientific study of patterns in an individual’s style of movement in walking or running — is regarded as one of the most sophisticated approaches to identifying an individual from CCTV footage or video recordings and as especially valuable in the absence of other biometric identifiers.

The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Magazine noted in 2023 that gait analysis, which has been used to help secure criminal convictions throughout the Anglosphere for decades, “can be compelling, corroborating evidence,” especially since “criminals cannot hide their gait.”

Baker said he presented his evidence to government intelligence officials for analysis, and their response was, “Holy f-ck, she’s one of us.”

“This now will implicate so many people at the highest levels,” Beck responded, adding that “it’s going to involve everybody. I mean this is really bad, really, really bad.”

The conservative talker suggested that Baker’s work on the explosive story was the real reason he was arrested by the FBI and perp walked in Dallas, Texas, in March of 2024.

Beck asked Baker if the reason the information was still being withheld from the public was “because of national security.”

“That’s correct,” Baker responded, explaining later that national security-related briefings are currently under way.

“So they’ve got to take care of  things they’ve got to take care of, then this story will be released,” Beck said.

The two indicated that the story would be published in full on Thursday.

Baker posted an update on Thursday explaining why Blaze Media “hit the pause button” on the explosive story.

After an abundance of counsel from trusted parties within and outside the government, we’ve hit the pause button so those interested parties can have some more time to look at the J6 pipe bomber evidence. There are things they need to do internally. This is a real story. When it breaks, it’s going to be a HUGE story. There are a lot of moving parts, but we need to give them time to do what they need to do, and I know everyone is waiting.

Believe me. Tensions are running high. There have been a lot of sleepless nights the last two weeks. But this is a game-changer, and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that right now. I was up at 3:30 am preparing the video clips for the release on this morning’s Glenn Beck Program. Contrary to what so many X complainers will say, this wasn’t a hype stunt for views and clicks. And no, the government didn’t silence us.

Glenn and I both were pretty amped up to put it all out this morning. And we were both very disappointed when the decision to postpone was made. The government’s investigation into the J6 pipe bombs was going nowhere just two weeks ago. Today I can tell you that has all changed. A bunch of people got pretty spun up yesterday. Hang tight. It’s all coming.

The FBI never publicly identified a suspect, despite amassing over 105 million data points and reviewing more than 39,000 video files.

The agency has described the suspect as approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, black gloves, and rare Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers.
Surveillance footage shows the suspect walking near a Capitol Police squad car on January 5, 2021, en route to plant a device near the Republican National Committee building.

A House report criticized federal law enforcement for “egregious safety and security failures,” noting that both the DNC and RNC bomb sites were left unsecured, allowing protectees like Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass within feet of the devices.

The report also questioned why CCTV cameras were not properly monitoring the areas and why the FBI has not released unedited footage from the night of January 5.

Former FBI official Steven D’Antuono told House investigators that an “unusual circumstance”—specifically, corrupted cell data—had prevented investigators from using geofencing technology to identify the suspect.

Baker told Beck on Wednesday that he and Hanneman had not presented their findings to the FBI or the Metropolitan Police Department, despite the offer of a $500,000 reward for evidence that leads to an arrest in the case, because they believe yet-to-be named agencies “were actively engaged in the cover-up.”

Beck called the revelation “the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last 100 years. It is monstrous.”

Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski stated on Friday that he was confident that under FBI Director Kash Patel’s leadership, the Bureau will finally expose the identity of the January 6th pipe bomber.

“Kash Patel is doing an amazing job. I have full faith he is putting the right people on this and we will find the terrorist,” Lewandowski told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

Update:

The Blaze is now reporting that Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, 31, of Alexandria, Va. is the individual who had at least a 94 percent match to the bomb suspect shown in the Jan. 5, 2021 pipe bomb video.

Kerkhoff  was a Capitol Police officer for four and a half years and left the department in mid-2021 for a security detail at the Central Intelligence Agency, sources told Blaze News.

The FBI said an unknown subject placed pipe bombs under a park bench at the DNC and the Capitol Hill Club near the Republican National Committee building between 7:54 and 8:16 p.m. the night before the riot.

Discovery of the devices between 12:40 and 1:05 p.m. respectively on Jan. 6 drew already depleted police resources away from the Capitol just as a huge crowd breached the grounds at 12:53 p.m. A joint session of Congress convened at 1 p.m. to take up challenges to the certification of the Electoral College vote from the 2020 presidential election.

Kerkhoff was a Capitol Police officer from 2018 until mid-2021. She was a member of the department’s Civil Disturbance Unit and a training officer on the use of “less-lethal” crowd-control weapons that were extensively used on the Jan. 6 crowds.