Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed without providing evidence that the FBI actually knows the identity of a person who left two pipe bombs near the Capitol a day before the Jan 6 insurrection.
Investigators said they have been left stumped in trying to identify a suspect who placed the explosive devices outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC.
Despite offering a $500,000 reward, the FBI is no nearer to making an arrest in the case, but that has not stopped Ms Greene from suggesting they actually know who did it.
The far-right lawmaker from Georgia made the outrageous claim on her Battleground podcast.
“The FBI can’t find the pipe bomber? This is ridiculous! This shows you that the FBI doesn’t care about finding the pipe bomber because they know exactly who the pipe bomber is,” she said.
“And they use their resources and your hard-earned tax dollars to go after people because they support Trump and were mad about the election of 2020 and these people walked into the Capitol.”
In January, David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said that for two years “a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, and law enforcement partners have been tirelessly reviewing evidence and digital media related to this case”.
The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Washington police had “conducted approximately 1,000 interviews, visited more than 1,200 residences and businesses, collected more than 39,000 video files, and assessed nearly 500 tips”, according to the bureau.
“In raising the reward for information about the pipe bomb suspect from $100,000 to as much as $500,000, the FBI and our partners are seeking to encourage the American public to take a fresh look at our Seeking Information website, which includes images and video of the suspect, the suspect’s backpack, the suspect’s shoes, the explosive devices, and a map of the route the suspect walked the night the pipe bombs were placed,” the FBI said.