Controversial right-wing 'bombshell' may have backfired

A right-wing media outlet's exposé on what it claimed was the likely identity of the January 6th pipe bomber has been proven to be more of a bomb than a bombshell, reports The Bulwark.

The Blaze, founded by conservative commentator Glenn Beck, reported that "a female former Capitol Police officer who joined the CIA shortly after January 6th was 'a forensic match' for the individual caught on camera footage the night before."

The report said that they used "gait analysis" to compare the walk of the ex-officer to the alleged bomber.

Loyalists of President Donald Trump immediately picked up on the report, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who wrote on X that “a Capitol police officer placed a pipe bomb at the RNC on J6,” adding that the Blaze story was proof that Republicans would “all be in the gulag” if it wasn't for Trump.

“This woman was the Capitol Hill pipe bomber,” wrote Women for Trump co-founder and January 6 Ellipse rally organizer Amy Kremer on X.

The Justice Department, however, remained uncharacteristically silent about the report, The Bulwark notes, and Rep. Luna deleted her post.

"Instead of uncovering the likely identity of the pipe bomb-dropping suspect, the Blaze may have a legal mess on its hands," The Bulwark says.

"The mystery has loomed especially large for conservatives, who see the FBI’s failure to catch the perpetrator as proof that the laying of the bombs — and perhaps the Capitol riot itself — was an inside job orchestrated by federal law enforcement to entrap Trump supporters," they write.

Like the promised release of the Epstein files, when Trump took office, MAGA expected answers on the pipe-bomber, but "frustratingly for the right, the installation of Trump diehards like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino as the leaders of the FBI hasn’t turned up any more information," they note.

For the Blaze founder Beck, the story represents “the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last hundred years,” he exclaimed a few days before the story ran.

The pipe-bomb suspect, according to Beck, was “at the highest levels of government.”

Steve Baker, one of the story's reporters, posted on X that the investigation had uncovered “the biggest scandal and conspiracy in American history.”

The Bulwark points out that Baker "was himself a January 6th defendant; he pleaded guilty to his role in the riot late last year."

"Perhaps more important, though, is that right-wing media outlets have gotten more gun-shy about implicating non-public people of crimes," they write, pointing to lawsuits resulting in rulings against InfoWars and Fox News.

And while Baker named and published photos of a specific person, giving "the impression that he might actually have the goods," The Bulwark says, "the actual reporting was not definitive."

Baker and his co-author Joseph M. Hanneman apparently used "years-old footage" of their accused bomber playing soccer to compare to the footage from January 5, 2021.

"Instead of using suspect footage released by the FBI, however, the Blaze claims it used footage 'from another source' the article doesn’t name," The Bulwark notes.

The Blaze didn't release the video to prove their claims, instead citing the work of a “video sleuth,” whom The Bulwark deems "a little-known X user named Armitas whose online profile image is a picture from the 1998 role-playing video game Xenogears."

The woman who was identified by the Blaze "was already a target of the MAGA right," photographed as one of the officers firing pepper balls at January 6th rioters, and later testified against January 6th participants in at least two cases, according to court records, The Bulwark says.

As the article started to gain traction, it suffered "an immediate blow to its credibility," they report.

"While the article initially claimed that the woman now works on CIA director John Ratcliffe’s security detail, the article was corrected after the CIA clarified that she worked as a security guard on CIA property," they write.

Julie Kelly, "a right-wing media figure who has become the dean of the MAGA January 6th counternarrative," has investigated the pipe bomber herself, and slammed The Blaze's story.

“I am shocked at the weak evidence cited in The Blaze article and nonexistent evidence contained in the piece itself,” Kelly tweeted.

"High-ranking Justice Department official Ed Martin appeared to support the article before it came out, tweeting sequentially 'P' 'I' 'P' 'E?' before deleting the posts containing the letters. At the same time, Martin tweeted out that neither he nor the FBI had made a determination of the pipe-bomb suspect’s identity," The Bulwark notes.

Following the story, the FBI put out a statement saying they are still investigating the case, and right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson used it to quash the story on his show.

“There’s no other way to accept this statement, other than they’re saying the Blaze has it wrong," he said.

Even Beck seems to be walking away from the story, The Bulwark says.

"Despite the Blaze publishing the officer’s name on Saturday, Beck refused to name the woman on his podcast, saying 'a match is not guilt.'"

“This person of interest is still a citizen whose life carries the same dignity and presumption of innocence as yours and mine,” Beck said. “I can’t tell you what is true in this story yet.”