US Vice President Kamala Harris was evacuated from the Democratic National Committee offices in Washington in the morning of January 6, 2021, the day the US Capitol was swarmed with rioters, after a pipe bomb was discovered nearby.
The then-vice president-elect was the nameless "protectee" reported as being evacuated from the premises at around 1:14 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, according to a former law enforcement officer and a White House official.
Harris said she had been inside the Capitol that morning for a secret Senate Intelligence Committee briefing before departing in remarks recognising one year since the insurgency.
"On that day, I was not only vice president-elect, I was also a United States senator. And I was here at the Capitol that morning, at a classified hearing with fellow members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Hours later, the gates of the Capitol were breached," Harris said.
"I had left. But my thoughts immediately turned not only to my colleagues but to my staff, who had been forced to seek refuge in our office, converting filing cabinets into barricades.", she added.
No one has been charged with the bombing, and the FBI is still looking for a suspect who has been identified in various recordings released in the previous year, reported CNN.
On the night before the US Capitol incident, the suspect is believed to have planted two pipe bombs near the RNC and DNC buildings.
The evacuation occurred barely seven minutes after Capitol Police began investigating the bomb, according to an internal police timetable acquired by CNN.
As violence erupted in the Capitol, the Office of the Vice President-elect declined to comment on Harris' whereabouts, but an aide assured CNN she was "safe." According to a timetable acquired by CNN, the DNC bomb threat was cleared at 4:36 p.m. ET.
The device, as well as a similar one put at the Republican National Committee's offices, was attached to egg timers and loaded with explosive powder, according to CNN.
According to an account given to lawmakers by the acting chief of the US Capitol Police in January 2021 and an FBI poster seeking information on the suspect, the bombs were discovered within minutes of each other around 1 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, just as a mob of angry supporters of then-President Donald Trump descended on the Capitol after a rally near the White House during which Trump spoke.
Following the insurgency, Harris returned to the Capitol about 8 p.m. ET to participate in the certification of the presidential election.
A virtual map detailing the route the suspect travelled while setting the two explosives between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on January 5, 2021, was revealed in September.
Despite a $100,000 reward offered by the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency has been unable in discovering the suspect.
According to the FBI, the suspect is seen sitting on a bench near the DNC in the location where the pipe bomb was subsequently put in CCTV footage released in September.
A person wearing a face mask, grey hooded sweatshirt, and black and light grey Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo was seen in previous images and videos.
According to a news release from the FBI Washington Field Office, "reviews of the suspect's conduct in-camera footage and interviews with people in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood have led the FBI to think the suspect is not from the area.", reported CNN.
( With inputs from ANI )
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