A federal security officer linked to a thwarted Jan. 6 pipe bomb attack cleared her name by providing an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed, sources told CBS News. The FBI has now ruled her out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, according to three sources — but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site.
How an innocent woman’s name came to be publicly linked to the unexploded pipe bombs is a question that has raised concerns among some senior officials in the Trump administration.
CBS News is not naming the security officer or her workplace. The federal agency she protects declined to comment.
Multiple sources said that a unit overseen by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard drafted a memo identifying the woman and describing allegations that she had placed the explosive devices outside Democratic and Republican party offices.
ODNI officials said the agency received a tip from a person affiliated with a media organization about potential criminal wrongdoing by an individual believed to be working at an intelligence agency and set about documenting it in a memo.
A copy of the unfinished memo was given to senior staff at the security officer’s workplace, sources said.
It also circulated among a few Trump administration officials, building expectations that the nearly five-year-old case might be solved. But the memo caught some officials at the FBI, Justice Department and White House off guard, the sources said.
ODNI oversees the nation’s foreign intelligence gathering and has limited domestic investigative authorities. The FBI is leading the pipe bomb investigation.
A short time after the unfinished memo began to circulate, the conservative news outlet, Blaze News, published details similar to those in the draft, including the woman’s full name.
The Nov. 8 Blaze News article claimed that it had pinpointed the woman after a review of video evidence and “gait analysis” software matched her walking pattern to the gait of a person shown in surveillance footage, who authorities suspect planted bombs outside the party offices on Jan. 5, 2021.
Blaze News said its work had been “confirmed by several intelligence sources.”
Several sources told CBS News that the classified draft memo, which was on ODNI letterhead, was written by Paul McNamara, who is in charge of Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group, which is tasked with providing “transparency and accountability” and executing President Trump’s intelligence-related executive orders. McNamara could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson, Olivia Coleman, said, “ODNI followed its obligation to report information received concerning the alleged activities of a member of the Intelligence Community to that person’s employing agency.”
“After a whistleblower came forward with an allegation, ODNI documented the accusation and lawfully reported it, fulfilling our legal duty to alert appropriate agencies when alleged/potential security concerns are brought to our attention,” Coleman said. “There were no predetermined conclusions or assessments made, and every action taken was done so in consultation with legal counsel.”
The Blaze report became the subject of extensive media coverage and discussion on social media, especially among supporters of Mr. Trump.
Word of this supposed break in the case reached Mr. Trump, two of the sources said, although it’s unclear how he learned of it.
The bomb-planting incident is one of the lingering mysteries surrounding the events around the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot. Nearly five years since the pipe bombs were placed, no suspect has been arrested or identified. The FBI said the bombs were viable, but they did not detonate.
CBS News was not shown the memo, but sources said McNamara had accessed confidential files to obtain details about the woman for the draft memo, including her place of work and Social Security number.
Gabbard, the top ODNI official, has since distanced herself from the memo, telling senior officials that the information about the woman spread without her knowledge while Gabbard was traveling abroad, several sources said.
An ODNI official also said the draft memo hadn’t been reviewed or approved by agency leadership.
Sources said this situation, and others, were viewed internally by some senior administration officials as interfering in areas that were beyond the purview of the national intelligence director’s office. Axios reported in September that Justice Department officials believed ODNI had hindered their case against former CIA Director John Brennan. The New York Times in October reported that ODNI had accessed FBI investigative files related to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, searched for evidence of conspiracies and potentially undermined the government’s case against the alleged assassin.
The federal security officer cooperated with the FBI, sources close to the matter said. Her lawyer said publicly she had done nothing wrong. Both the woman and her lawyer declined to comment.
She returned to work after being placed on a brief leave, one of the sources said.
An FBI spokesperson and representatives for Blaze News didn’t respond to requests for comment. Blaze News updated its story with one correction and further information, but it remains online.
FBI officials have said they’re continuing to pursue leads in the pipe bomb case.