FBI offers $75,000 reward for US Capitol pipe bomb suspect

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has offered a $75,000 reward for help in identifying the person who placed two pipe bombs during the January 6 violence on the US Capitol, where several people were killed.

The suspect was seen in a security video wearing a loose grey hoodie and black gloves and his/her face was covered by a coronavirus mask.

The person is suspected to have planted the bombs at the offices of the Democratic and Republican parties near the Capitol building which houses the Congress.  

The bombs indicated that supporters of then-Republican President Donald Trump might have planned to kill some US lawmakers or blast the US legislature.

Some experts, however, believe that the bombs might have been designed as an intentional diversion to attract security forces so that Trump’s loyalists could storm the Capitol building.  

The FBI announcement on Thursday suggested the agency could not identify the suspect.

On January 6, Trump supporters launched a deadly assault on the US Capitol, disrupting the certification of the disputed November election results. Five people were killed in the siege.

Trump was impeached for the second time last week under the charge of incitement of an insurrection.

Start of Trump's impeachment trial remains unsettled

The US Senate was scheduled to vote on Trump’s impeachment after Biden’s inauguration but the timing of the impeachment trial is still unsettled while Senate leaders haggle over how a power-sharing agreement will govern a 50-50 Senate.

Then-US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week said he would listen to the arguments presented during the Senate trial before deciding how to vote on the impeachment charges against Trump.

On Tuesday, McConnell accused Trump of provoking the January 6 chaos at the Capitol.

“The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, marking the first convening of the full Senate since the attack.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Senate speech that Trump “is a threat to our constitutional order whether he is in or out of office.”

Pelosi seeks criminal charges for lawmakers complicit in Capitol riots

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says members of Congress found to have been complicit in the storming of the Capitol should face prosecution.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that the House was "ready" to begin the impeachment trial but would wait until the Senate was ready before formally initiating the impeachment article, CNN reported.  

"They have now informed us they are ready to receive, the question is other questions about how a trial will proceed, but we are ready," Pelosi said of the Senate.

House Democrats are likely to send over the article of impeachment to the Senate on Friday, but the question of who will represent Trump remains unanswered.

"The articles could be walked over Friday," one source said.

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