Devices that looked like pipe bombs found near the headquarters offices for the Republican and Democratic National Committees during rioting at the nation's Capitol building Wednesday have been determined to be "the real deal," according to a senior federal law enforcement officer.
Several IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, were found near the Capitol grounds, reports Fox News, and specifically, the devices near the headquarters offices were explosives that Washington, D.C., bomb squad officers disarmed.
Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, who was on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" when the news broke, said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is in charge of that investigation and that he can't "relate" the explosives found near the headquarters to other items found near the Capitol.
Cuccinelli said he has seen pictures of the devices at both sites, and they "look very similar, suggesting that the same person probably did both the RNC and DNC devices at the same time."
The matter is being taken seriously, he added.
"All day yesterday we were going through identifying suspicious packages not only in D.C. but also in northern Virginia as well, and paying close attention to that," Cuccinelli said.
Meanwhile, Cuccinelli said the government has been dealing with violent protests for the past six months, but to see it at the U.S. Capitol was all the worse.
"It is not acceptable anywhere by anyone," he said. "We sent reinforcements. Secret Service and Federal Protective Service were on Capitol Hill at the request of the Capitol Police ... we stand ready to continue that level of support."
In addition, the government, at the request of the Capitol Police, is building fencing around the Capitol this week in preparation for the upcoming inauguration, said Cuccinelli.
"Expect that to be done, the fencing, around the Capitol today and tomorrow," he said.
"We'll have a secure inauguration. That planning has been in the works for a long time. The Secret Service in charge of that. America can be very confident that you won't see a repeat of this kind of behavior."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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