"In January, 2025, Dan Bongino, then a Secret Service agent turned serial congressional candidate turned right-wing podcaster, spoke on his show about "the biggest political scandal of our time." The F.B.I. had just released footage of a suspect in an unsolved case: a pair of pipe bombs had been left outside the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Democratic and the Republican National Committees on the eve of the insurrection at the Capitol, four years prior."
"But the footage appeared to have been "dramatically manipulated," Bongino claimed, and the F.B.I. already knew that the person who had planted the bombs was an "insider" working to "create a narrative that crazy MAGA people are trying to assassinate Kamala Harris," who was in the D.N.C. building on January 6th. If the footage was altered intentionally, then "people belong in jail," Bongino said, his eyes wide. "Jail!""
"Not long after, Bongino became Patel's No. 2 at the F.B.I. By the end of the year, he was able to tout the arrest of a man in the case. According to reports, the man had no known connections to the inside of much of anything, and had travelled to D.C. to attend a pro-Trump protest, because he had doubts about the outcome of the 2020 election. (He has pleaded not guilty.)"
In January 2025, Dan Bongino alleged that F.B.I. footage in a pipe-bomb case had been "dramatically manipulated" and accused an "insider" of creating a narrative about MAGA violence, demanding that "people belong in jail." Kash Patel, President-elect Trump's incoming F.B.I. director, was expected to investigate. Bongino then served briefly as Patel's No. 2 at the F.B.I. He later publicized an arrest in the case; the arrested man reportedly had no known insider connections and has pleaded not guilty. Bongino told Fox News he had been paid previously for opinions but said his current role required basing investigations on facts.
Read at The New Yorker
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