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Dan Bongino Drops Screenshots In Online Feud With GOP Lawmaker

An intraparty struggle spilled out in public this week as a prominent Republican congressman suggested President Donald Trump’s FBI could be trying to stage a cover-up in the investigation over the Jan. 6, 2021, pipe bombs.

The clash began with an article from The Blaze, a right-wing news site founded by Glenn Beck, claiming that a former U.S. Capitol Police officer was likely involved in planting the bombs left outside Democratic and Republican party headquarters, based on algorithmic analysis of the suspect’s gait arranged by the publication.

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After nearly five years, investigators have still not identified a suspect, despite pouring unprecedented resources into their investigation of the events of Jan. 6.

The delay has allowed room for conspiracy theories to take root.

Among the conservatives who highlighted the report on social media — such as Trump allies Kari Lake and Amy Kremer — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was one of the loudest.

As he wrote Saturday, “America is waking up today to learn that Capitol Police turned CIA orchestrated the pipe bombs on January 6th, and the FBI has covered it up for over fours years.”

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It is not at all clear that The Blaze’s reporting is correct. An attorney for the officer “categorically denie[d]” the accusation in a statement to The Washington Post.

For years, right-wingers have been trying to prove that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot had been organized, or at least spurred on, by law enforcement as part of a “deep state” conspiracy to discredit Trump supporters. A former officer’s involvement could boost this argument.

Voices on both sides of the aisle, however, have been calling for answers on the pipe bomb mystery, which diverted law enforcement resources away from the Capitol before the riot.

In the days after the Blaze report came out, Massie used his X account to share a post from a right-wing commentator suggesting the pipe bomb found on Jan. 6 appeared identical to the types of bombs used in FBI field training. He said explicitly that the FBI, CIA and U.S. Capitol Police “are implicated” in the Blaze story.

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On Wednesday, he posted a letter to social media that he got from a lawyer representing an alleged whistleblower with information on the pipe bomb investigation. According to the individual, the FBI was instructed to abruptly stand down their pipe bomb investigation as they closed in on a suspect.

The lawyer said his client believed that FBI Director Kash Patel and other senior agency leadership were planning to try to unmask him or her.

“Identifying the whistleblower serves only one purpose, which is to allow FBI management to retaliate,” wrote attorney Kurt Siuzdak.

Massie called the letter “troubling.”

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“Just a reminder to [Patel], in case this letter is warranted, federal law prevents retaliation against whistleblowers,” he wrote.

That’s when FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino chimed in to push back.

He posted two screenshots of phone logs with Massie, accusing the congressman of refusing to engage with him in a good-faith discussion on where the pipe bomb investigation currently stands. Bongino forcefully defended Patel and the work the FBI has done so far.

“We brought in new personnel to take a look at the case, we flew in police officers and detectives working as TFOs (task force officers) to review FBI work, we conducted multiple internal reviews, held countless in person and [teleconference] meetings with investigative team members, we dramatically increased investigative resources, and we increased the public award for information in the case to utilize crowd-sourcing leads,” he said.

Bongino added that “some of the media reporting regarding prior persons of interest is grossly inaccurate and serves only to mislead the public.” However, he did not clarify if he was referring to the Blaze report.

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The FBI then debuted a new social media channel, dubbed FBI Rapid Response, an agency-specific version of the “rapid response” account that exists to push back on negative stories about the president.

“Our team continues to face an avalanche of lies, smears, and falsehoods from the fake news and others seeking to undermine our work and national security,” the FBI said in its first post on the new account.

“The days of bad-faith attacks and fake-news narratives are over. Welcome to FBI Rapid Response.”

Massie’s attacks have likely pushed him further out of favor with the Trump administration, seeing as he has been spearheading the House effort to release more of the government’s files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over Trump’s objections.