Washington, Dec 4, (dpa/GNA) – The FBI has detained a suspect, believed to have planted pipe bombs in Washington before the Capitol was stormed in January 2021, US media reports said on Thursday.
ABC News and Fox News, reported on the basis of people with knowledge of the matter that the person detained, was a man from the state of Virginia.
He is reported to have planted the pipe bombs near the party headquarters of the Democrats and the Republicans, in the night before the Capitol was stormed. According to the reports, his motive remains unclear.
On January 6, supporters of Donald Trump, then nearing the end of his first term as president, attacked the Capitol, where both houses of the US Congress are located.
They were attempting to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden as the winner of the November 2020 presidential elections.
On the same day, just two weeks before Biden was to be inaugurated, Trump gave a speech in which he maintained that he had lost the elections as a result of fraud on a large scale.
The attack on the Capitol shook the heart of US democracy.
According to the media reports, the pipe bombs were placed outside the two party headquarters. They were found only after the Capitol was stormed.
After failing to find those responsible, in October the FBI offered a reward of $500,000 for information leading to an arrest.
GNA