FBI Hands Over Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Documents to House Republicans, Letter Says

The documents include information about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, the FBI’s communications with social media firms, and school threat investigations.

New Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on Feb. 21, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The FBI has said it is handing over subpoenaed documents to Republican House Judiciary lawmakers, responding to a letter that called for “transparency and accountability” at the bureau.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel about information and documents that he said were withheld under former FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In a letter dated March 7, FBI Assistant Director Marshall Yates responded by including documents and information about alleged pipe bombs that were found near Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington in January 2021, the FBI’s communications with social media companies, and investigations into threats against school officials.

“As a sign of good faith, we are providing this initial production more than a week ahead of the Committee’s subpoena deadline,” Yates wrote. “But this will not be the last production we will send to satisfactorily comply with the Committee’s subpoena. To that end, we are diligently working to completely comply with your subpoenas.”

Due to “the diverse and broad subject matters implicated in your requests, the FBI is providing” an initial response, he said, adding that more documents will be identified and submitted to the House panel.

Documents sent to Jordan’s office will also include “minimal redactions” to protect sensitive law enforcement information, the FBI said.

In a letter dated Feb. 24, days after Patel was confirmed as the FBI’s director, Jordan requested a bevy of documents and information about the FBI’s activity under Wray, who stepped down from his post as President Donald Trump took office in January.

That included Wray’s alleged “slow-walking” of an investigation into pipe bombs found near the headquarters around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach as well as the FBI’s usage of “confidential human sources” on Jan. 6.

Some Republicans have asserted that FBI informants were present on Jan. 6, details of which were later confirmed by the bureau’s inspector general office in December 2024. While there were no undercover FBI agents present, there were more than two dozen informants present on Jan. 6, the report found.

Other details sought by Republicans in their letter include the FBI sending agents to local school board meetings following a controversial memo that was issued in 2021 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland about threats against school administrators and teachers. Details about the FBI Richmond office sending a memo that labeled some Catholics as “violent extremists” were also requested in the letter.

Earlier this year, Wray told CBS News that he stepped down because he “deeply” cares about the FBI and its staff, while Trump “had made it clear that he intended to make a change.” As a result, he said that his “conclusion was that the thing that was best for the Bureau was to try to do this in an orderly way, to not thrust the FBI deeper into the fray.”

Meanwhile, Patel has said that he wants the FBI to be more transparent and to rebuild trust in the federal law enforcement agency.

The Epoch Times contacted Jordan’s office for comment on Tuesday.