Those who steer clear of conservative media outlets may not realize that, for many on the right, a suspect in the Capitol pipe-bombs case was identified several weeks ago. An outlet called The Blaze cited a “gait analysis” last month and told readers that there was a 94% match between the suspect and a former Capitol Police officer.
Assorted far-right figures, including some Republican members of Congress and prominent Trump administration officials, took the reporting seriously, which was unfortunate: The “gait analysis” was wrong, and the former Capitol Police officer wasn’t the suspect.
But before far-right conspiracy theorists got this aspect of the story wrong, they had gotten a bunch of other things wrong.
Take FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, for example.
Last fall, the week before Election Day 2024, Bongino told listeners to his conservative podcast that there was “a massive cover-up” in the pipe-bombs case and that the bombs might’ve been placed outside Republican and Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C. as part of an “inside job” launched by the federal government.
Earlier this year, Bongino went further, telling his audience that the FBI knew the identity of the bomber and “just doesn’t want to tell us because it was an inside job.”
Eleven months later, Bongino helped lead a press conference to announce the arrest of a suspect in the case. If the FBI and the Justice Department have the right guy, then clearly this was not “an inside job” and those conspiracy theories were wrong.
How, pray tell, does the FBI deputy director explain peddling conspiratorial nonsense that his own agency appears to have debunked? As it turns out, Bongino was given an opportunity to explain himself during a Thursday night appearance on Fox News.
Host Sean Hannity noted Bongino’s earlier comments about the case, to which the FBI deputy director responded, “You know, listen, I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That’s clear. And one day, I’ll be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now.”
So let me see if I have this straight: Bongino was a far-right media personality who used his platform to tell the public, among other things, about his conspiratorial beliefs related to the pipe-bombs case. Two months after peddling these claims, the president tapped him to help lead the FBI.
And now, however, Bongino seems willing to acknowledge that he didn’t know what he was talking about (or that he embraced certain positions because they were more lucrative) — which naturally raises a whole bunch of questions about why he was hired for a key federal law enforcement position and why anyone should find him credible going forward.
