FBI deputy director Dan Bongino says Biden-era investigations being reexamined

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FBI deputy director Dan Bongino says Biden-era investigations being reexamined

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino announced early Monday that three high-profile cases are being reexamined: The investigations into the 2021 D.C. pipe bombings, ******** found in the White House in 2023 and the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision ending the federal right to an abortion.

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File: Host Dan Bongino as US Open winner Gary Woodland visits “FOX & Friends” at Fox News Channel Studios on June 18, 2019 in New York City.

Roy Rochlin / Getty Images

“Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,” Bongino said in a statement. “We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases.” 

Bongino said he has requested weekly updates on these cases, and “we are making progress.”

The identity of the person who planted two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, remains a mystery over four years later. Occurring in the final days of the first Trump administration, the incident was mainly investigated by the FBI during the Biden administration, under Christopher Wray, who was FBI director from 2017 through January 2025, and resigned shortly before President Trump took office. Mr. Trump tapped allies Kash Patel as FBI director and Bongino as his deputy. 

The earliest case that Bongino announced was being reexamined occurred when pipe bombs were discovered by a passerby around 1 p.m. Jan. 6, 2021, at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and near the Republican National Committee headquarters as Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election results. Both buildings are near the Capitol. 

Investigators believe both pipe bombs were left between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the vice president-elect at the time, was evacuated from the Democratic National Committee headquarters when the devices were recovered. 

No suspect has ever publicly been named, although earlier this year, investigators released security camera video showing the suspect sitting on a park bench, reaching into his backpack and planting a pipe bomb outside the DNC. 

According to a report obtained by CBS News in March 2021, the bombs contained only one method of detonation — a 60-minute kitchen timer. The devices did not go off, and when and whether they were meant to explode remains unclear. But the FBI said its analysis concluded the pipe bombs were viable and posed a danger to the public.

Another case Bongino plans to reexamine is the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in the Dobbs case, which sought to overturn the 1973 Roe decision that made abortion legal nationwide. A draft opinion of a Supreme Court had never before been leaked, and at the time, Chief Justice John Roberts denounced the leak as a “betrayal” and “a singular and egregious betrayal of trust” that would be fully investigated. 

An eight-month investigation was conducted by the marshal of the Supreme Court, who consulted with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, but investigators were unable to find the leaker. 

In a 20-page report released with a Supreme Court statement saying the leaker could not be identified, Marshal of the Supreme Court Gail Curley said it is “unlikely” the leak stemmed from a hack of the court’s IT systems by a person outside the court. But after examining the Supreme Court’s computer devices, networks, printers and available call and text logs, investigators found “no forensic evidence indicating who disclosed the draft opinion.”

The final case cited by Bongino was the discovery of ******** at the White House on July 2, 2023. The Secret Service closed the investigation after 11 days, saying it had compiled a list of “several hundred” people who may have accessed the area where the substance was discovered. But no fingerprints could be found on the ********’s packaging and there was “insufficient DNA” for “investigative comparisons,” the Secret Service said at the time.

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Caroline Linton

Caroline Linton is an associate managing editor on the political team for CBSNews.com. She has previously written for The Daily Beast, Newsweek and amNewYork.

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