- VP Kamala Harris was in the DNC headquarters when a pipe bomb was found on January 6.
- Politico reports that Harris was a "protectee" evacuated from the premises after the bomb's discovery.
- The suspect who placed the bombs outside the DNC and RNC has not been arrested and remains at large.
Vice President Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters when authorities discovered a pipe bomb outside the building on January 6, 2021, Politico reports.
Politico identified Harris as the high-level "protectee" that was evacuated from the DNC building at 1:14 pm referenced in a Capitol Police timeline of the bomb discovery. Harris vacated the premises seven minutes after Capitol Police discovered the bomb, sources confirmed to Politico.
The revelation adds a crucial piece of the puzzle surrounding Harris' whereabouts and movements on January 6, and raises the stakes in the search for the suspect who placed two pipe bombs outside both the headquarters of the DNC and the Republican National Committee on January 5.
A year after the insurrection, the suspect accused of planting the bombs is still at large. No arrests have been made in connection with the placement of the bombs.
Harris and President Joe Biden both delivered remarks inside Statuary Hall to mark the one-year anniversary of the insurrection on the US Capitol on Thursday.
Harris, who was the vice president-elect on January 6 and still a member of the US Senate, mentioned that she attended an intelligence briefing that morning and said her staff in her Senate office "converted filing cabinets into barricades" to protect them from the mob storming the Capitol.
Capitol Hill resident Karlin Younger found the pipe bomb left at the RNC headquarters early in the afternoon of January 6, she recounted to Insider last year, leading law enforcement to make a similar discovery at the Democratic headquarters.
As Politico noted, the discovery of the pipe bombs early in the afternoon of January 6 diverted significant law enforcement resources away from the unfolding chaos at the US Capitol building itself, as a mob of rioters began clashing with law enforcement on the Capitol steps before eventually breaching the building itself.
The FBI released surveillance footage of the suspect and photos of their clothing and the bombs they placed in March 2021. The Bureau is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect.