The unsolved case of two pipe bombs planted near party headquarters in Washington, D.C., ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot has drawn renewed scrutiny after FBI Director Kash Patel provided Congress with laboratory reports and witness interviews that challenge the bureau’s official timeline.

Documents obtained by Just the News show both bombs—one placed at the Democratic National Committee and the other at the Republican National Committee—contained chemical components of black powder and were fitted with 60-minute kitchen timers.

The FBI laboratory described them as “Improvised Explosive Devices” capable of causing injury or death “when properly assembled and initiated.”

However, the report did not use the term “viable” to describe either device, and neither exploded. Both were discovered about 16 hours after the FBI has claimed they were planted.

Among the documents sent to the House Judiciary Committee and its Jan. 6 subcommittee was an interview with the witness who discovered the RNC device.

The witness told agents that the clock dial showed 20 minutes remaining when she found the device on Jan. 6.

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She said it was not present when she passed the area around noon, but was there roughly 40 minutes later when she returned.

This account raises the possibility that at least one of the devices was planted shortly before it was discovered, rather than on the night of Jan. 5 as the FBI has maintained.

Congressional investigators are reviewing whether the bombs were planted as functioning explosives or intended as diversionary devices to pull resources away from the Capitol.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Jan. 6 response, said the bombs had a significant impact on security.

“The single greatest action that facilitated the protester’s ease of entry into the Capitol on January 6 was the placing of the pipe bombs, and the diversionary effect that had on security resources which would have otherwise been at the Capitol,” Loudermilk said.

He added that while the FBI has pursued cases against those who trespassed, it has provided little information about the search for whoever planted the bombs.

Patel’s disclosures mark the most detailed information yet on the FBI’s handling of the devices.

No suspect has been arrested despite security footage and a detailed description of the individual seen placing one of the bombs.

Patel, who took over leadership of the FBI after former Director Christopher Wray, inherited an investigation that lawmakers say was flawed from the start.

The FBI did not interview the RNC witness until five days after the incident, and only after she contacted the bureau herself.

“I am the person that discovered and alerted the guards to the pipe bomb found next to the RNC on January 6,” the witness wrote in her tip.

She later identified herself publicly as Karlin Younger, an employee at the U.S. Commerce Department.

Younger told investigators she initially thought the object was trash, but upon closer inspection saw wires and a clock.

She notified RNC security, who then alerted law enforcement.

Her account directly conflicts with the FBI’s public statement that the bomb was planted at 8:16 p.m. on Jan. 5. Younger has maintained that the device was placed sometime between noon and 12:40 p.m. on Jan. 6.

Other irregularities in the early investigation have also surfaced.

A whistleblower told Congress that the FBI waited more than a year before asking field offices to canvass informants for information on the bombs, an action described as “unusual” given the seriousness of the case.

Lawmakers in January released a report criticizing the bureau’s “chaotic response” to the pipe bombs and its failure to keep Congress informed.

They raised doubts about the FBI’s determination that the devices were “viable,” noting that the timers would not have allowed them to function 16 hours after they were allegedly planted.

More than four years after Jan. 6, the investigation remains unresolved.

The FBI has offered a large reward and released security footage showing a masked suspect, yet no arrests have been made.

Patel has pledged greater transparency, but acknowledged that his office inherited a case hampered by delays and gaps in the initial inquiry.

The newly released documents and witness testimony have prompted fresh questions from Congress about the true timeline of events and whether the devices were intended to explode or simply serve as a diversion.

For now, the mystery of the Jan. 6 pipe bombs remains one of the most significant unanswered questions surrounding that day.