New DHS surveillance report details how close Kamala Harris was to 'viable' pipe bomb on Jan. 6

The US Secret Service faced a number of challenges and made some potentially dangerous mistakes while trying to protect the president, vice president, and vice president-elect. January 6, 2021the day a mob supporting then-President Donald Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security's domestic watchdog.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, provides an official and detailed account of how Kamala Harristhen the incoming vice president, ended up within feet of a “viable” pipe bomb that had been planted in the bushes right outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

“The pipe bomb had been planted near the building the night before, but… [a]The Secret Service's advanced security sweep of the DNC building did not include the outdoor area where a pipe bomb had been planted,” said Inspector General Joseph Cuffari's report, which was shared Thursday with members of Congress.

The report describes how two Secret Service canine teams assigned to sweep the building were “surprised” to learn on the morning of Jan. 6 that no more assets were being provided to help with the sweep, but the report also notes that Secret Service policies and procedures at the time required fewer assets for protégés who had been elected to office but had not yet been sworn in.

“[Harris]who was traveling in an armored vehicle with his motorcade, entered the DNC building through a ramp 20 feet from the pipe bomb,” the report said.

According to the report, the bomb was found an hour and 40 minutes after Harris arrived at the DNC building. The report suggests it took the Secret Service 10 minutes to evacuate her, saying she spent a total of about an hour and 50 minutes inside the building.

Since then, the Secret Service has updated its policies to include more assets for select “proteges,” according to the heavily redacted report.

Federal authorities are still trying to determine who planted that bomb and a similar device at nearby Republican National Committee headquarters. The FBI is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Security camera video released by the FBI the suspect showed walking down a street in the area.

“While these bombs did not detonate, it is important to remember that the suspect walked through residential and commercial areas on Capitol Hill within blocks of the US Capitol with viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders.” the FBI said in a statement asking for the public's help earlier this year. “Also, the suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves.”

The long-awaited release of the report comes as it is the Secret Service still reeling of his failure to prevent a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man from nearly killing Trump less than three weeks ago.

Testifying in Congress earlier this weekActing Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe called it “a failure on multiple levels,” saying communication problems and other challenges helped keep authorities from realizing the threat posed by man and then they made it difficult for him to answer.

Cuffari's report describes how in 2021, communication challenges and missed signs of potential violence affected the Secret Service's planning and response to the events of January 6.

As described in the report, the Secret Service focused on three main locations that day: the Ellipse in Washington, where they were protecting Trump at his “Save America” ​​rally; the US Capitol, where then-Vice President Mike Pence presided over the certification of the 2020 election results; and the DNC building, where Harris was visiting.

Like many other law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service “anticipated that the planned Ellipse rally would be like previous pro-Trump rallies” in Washington, which saw “some violence” limited to clashes between counter-protesters, according to the report

But once the rally began, according to the report, “the Secret Service found indicators of potential for violence in the crowd,” including people trying to enter the safe zone wearing ballistic vests and gas masks.

By the end of the rally, the Secret Service alone had seized 269 blades, 242 bottles of pepper spray and 94 other prohibited items, the report said.

At 2:13 p.m., a little more than an hour after Trump finished his speech at the rally, rioters entered the Capitol building.

“Due to communication challenges and limited contingency planning, [Pence and his] The Secret Service protective detail only avoided the rioters,” the report said of the rioters, some of whom directed threats at the then-Vice President.

The section of the report that discusses this episode includes substantial redactions, although it does say that officers reported “failure to receive communications from multiple entities” and also mentions “manpower challenges that day.” .

“The events of January 6 were unprecedented, and the issues we identified during our review present an opportunity for the Secret Service to be better prepared going forward,” says the report, which makes several recommendations to improve agility of the Secret Service.

The Secret Service says it is already implementing many of the recommendations.

The report also offers a little more insight into two contentious issues stemming from Jan. 6, including Trump's alleged demands to go to the Capitol after his speech as the situation at the Capitol was escalating.

In June 2022, during dramatic public testimony before the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato had said Trump was so determined to go to the Capitol. that he taking the wheel from the presidential limousine and rushed toward the Secret Service detail when his demands were denied.

According to the inspector general's report, Ornato told Cuffari's investigators in writing — after declining an in-person interview — that he “does not recall being informed of any [such] details”, or “doesn't remember talking to anyone about it”.

Trump's detail officer, who was seated across from the then-president, said he did not recall how the president responded when told he could not go to the Capitol, but the limo driver told investigators that Trump was angry for that. , according to the report.

In the report, Cuffari also talks about efforts by his office — and “various congressional committees” — to obtain Secret Service phone communications, emails and text messages, but that their efforts were allegedly hampered because the Secret Service had “wiped all the phones when they updated the software [the weeks after Jan. 6, and] I had no backup files.”

In all, Cuffari's investigators ended up receiving one short text message sent by a single Secret Service official that day, according to the report.

The Secret Service disputed Cuffari's implication that the phones were “wiped” with nefarious intent, saying the software update that left so many communications unreachable had been planned long before Jan. 6.

“It is reassuring that the [inspector general] The report nowhere indicates that the Secret Service text messages were improperly deleted,” the Secret Service told Cuffari's office in a letter responding to the report's findings.

After January 6, members of Congress pressed the Department of Homeland Security to obtain a wide range of records, including communications from the Secret Service. The Secret Service text messages were never provided, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., recently said, “We could have had a better, more thorough report if we had had access to all those records.”