A missing trail of video, a five-year-old case, and new suspicions emerging from Capitol Hill — the investigation into the January 6 pipe bomb incident has taken another unexpected turn. Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, now chairing the House GOP-led Select Subcommittee on January 6, has raised fresh concerns that critical surveillance footage from the day of the Capitol riot is simply gone.
In a recent interview, Loudermilk claimed that footage from the morning of January 6 — particularly near the Republican and Democratic National Committee buildings, where pipe bombs were planted the night before — was not preserved.
pic.twitter.com/6kQUbAZz5h
J6 Subcommittee Chair Loudermilk Says ALL Footage of Pipe Bombs Being Planted at RNC and DNC Was magically DELETEDThe official narrative…
– AT&T cell tower data near the sites was reportedly “corrupted” during preservation attempts, erasing a key…
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) December 12, 2025
“That video apparently doesn’t exist anymore,” he stated, noting that while the January 5 footage is intact, the following day’s surveillance, which could have shown whether the suspect returned or how events unfolded near the devices, has disappeared. “So that does raise our eyebrows a bit.”
The assertion adds another layer of intrigue to an already murky investigation. Although the FBI previously reviewed more than 39,000 video frames related to the bomb suspect, no arrest was made until earlier this month, when 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. was taken into custody. Cole, who was apprehended at his family home, is charged with transporting explosives across state lines and attempting to maliciously destroy property. His arrest came not from surveillance footage, but rather through a trail of credit card records, cell phone metadata, and follow-up investigative work.
Still, the absence of January 6 footage in critical zones raises more questions than it answers. What exactly happened in the hours before the devices were discovered? Why were the bombs — placed in plain sight outside two major party headquarters — not detected until around 1 p.m. the next day? Were there other actors involved? And most critically: who had access to these surveillance archives, and why does this footage no longer exist?
Loudermilk stops short of accusing anyone outright of tampering with or deleting evidence, but the implications are hard to ignore. Surveillance video from Capitol Police cameras reportedly captured walking paths used by the suspect — yet the closest, most relevant angles near the DNC and RNC appear to be missing. Without those frames, it’s impossible to fully reconstruct the scene.
“He’s that quiet individual that you would never imagine could put a pipe bomb.”
U.S. Attorney Pirro tells @IngrahamAngle the D.C. pipe bomb suspect, Brian Cole Jr., kept a low profile and was “always wearing his headphones.” pic.twitter.com/POMRHfkUba
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 5, 2025
This gap becomes all the more consequential in light of inconsistencies already flagged in the investigation. For instance, bomb-sniffing dogs reportedly failed to detect the devices during early sweeps, and eyewitnesses claim they didn’t see anything unusual. Loudermilk speculates that distractions, oversight, or even the possibility of the bombs being placed again at a later time might explain the oversight — but again, without the video, that theory is nearly impossible to validate.
As Cole awaits his next court hearing, the unanswered questions loom larger. For a nation still grappling with the full scope of what happened on and around January 6, the idea that crucial video from key areas wasn’t saved — or was possibly removed — adds a troubling dimension to a case that’s already stirred years of debate.
