(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department filed a 28-page document on Friday, responding to accusations that a former Capitol Police officer and current CIA employee Shauni Kerkhoff planted the pipe bombs found outside of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021.
The DOJ’s Friday filing was in response to accused Jan. 5/6 pipe bomber Brian Cole Jr.’s lawyers, who want to subpoena Kerkhoff’s records on the grounds that she might be the true culprit.
Kerkhoff was first rumored to be the Jan. 5/6 pipe bomber last November, after Blaze Media published an article claiming that her gait—or the way she walks—was a 94% match to the person seen on surveillance footage planting the bombs. Blaze Media didn’t publish the gait analysis—or any other evidence—and the outlet has since retracted its article. Kerkhoff is now suing Blaze and the two reporters who wrote the article.
Cole’s lawyers, however, still think the Blaze report may have been accurate. To build their case against Kerkhoff, they have requested three subpoenas. Information the lawyers seek includes the original video of Kerkhoff’s dog on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, which was reportedly taken while the pipe bomber was in DC—giving her an alibi; another for communications between her and her boyfriend, Capitol Police officer Daniel Dickert; and a third for records related to the gait analysis conducted as part of the FBI’s investigation.
But in its response on Friday, the DOJ said Cole’s defense team shouldn’t be allowed to issue those subpoenas, because they have yet to produce any evidence that Kerkhoff is actually the pipe bomber.
“The FBI investigated this claim, as it did many others, and found it to be baseless,” the DOJ said, accusing Cole’s lawyers of going on a “fishing expedition.”
Prosecutors also addressed the issue of Kerkhoff “failing” an FBI polygraph test.
“Kerkhoff voluntarily submitted to a polygraph examination after she was unexpectedly called in by her employer for an FBI interview, sat for hours answering the FBI’s questions, then watched the FBI search her home, car, and cellphone—all in the same day,” the DOJ said.
“The polygraph examination itself took hours and finished after midnight. Given these circumstances, it would be unreasonable to place weight on the examiner’s opinion that Kerkhoff’s physiological stress responses indicated deception, much less to conclude that this result supports a nexus between Kerkhoff and the planting of the pipe bombs.”
Finally, the DOJ expressed concerns that Cole’s lawyers are also now working with the two former Blaze reporters being sued by Kerkhoff for their reporting on her.
“The government has deep concerns not only that the requested subpoenas are intended to fuel a baseless conspiracy theory, but also that the defense counsel in this criminal case are using Rule 17(c), and the criminal discovery process, to advance the interests of their defamation clients—the very people who propagated the conspiracy theory in the first place,” the DOJ said.
Meanwhile, the Blaze and its former reporters, Steve Baker and Joe Hanneman, have both filed motions to dismiss Kerkhoff’s defamation lawsuit. Part of their motion hinges on the fact that they didn’t explicitly say she’s the pipe bomber—their original November 2025 article only said her gait was a 94% match to the culprit. Kerkhoff has until September 21 to reply to the motions to dismiss.
The Blaze and Steve Baker have both moved to dismiss Shauni Kerkhoff’s amended complaint.
Part of their argument seems to be that none of the statements she’s suing over actually accused her of being the J6 pipe bomber.
A hearing is set for Sept. 2 on the matter. https://t.co/lxz9xwAbGT pic.twitter.com/yDqbamnwAQ— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 12, 2026
Pipe Bomb Case History
As Headline USA revealed in March 2024, the FBI had a suspect identified by Jan. 10, 2021 in the pipe bomb case, but never made any arrests.
FBI records released in September revealed that agents didn’t interview the woman who discovered a pipe bomb near the RNC around 12:40 p.m. on Jan. 6 until days later. That woman, former counterterrorism analyst and then-Commerce Department worker Karlin Younger, said she found the bomb while doing laundry.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Kamala Harris continues to be tight-lipped on the subject, despite the fact that her motorcade drove past the DNC pipe bomb on Jan. 6. Harris left the Capitol at 11:21 a.m. arrived to the DNC at 11:25 a.m., but the nearby pipe bomb wasn’t discovered until 1:07 p.m. by a plainclothes Capitol Police officer.
The lack of answers have driven many to suspect that it may have been a false-flag attempt overseen by the feds themselves to divert law enforcement from the Capitol right as the Jan. 6 protest was turning violent.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
