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Brian: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, good morning everyone. Did you know today is day 50 of Joe Biden's presidency, halfway through the traditional first 100 days period that presidents have been using to get their agendas out of the gate. Later this hour, we'll talk to Senator Cory Booker about where we're at. Also today, there are new developments in the investigation into the Capitol riot on January, 6th. We'll talk about that first with NPR congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales in just a second.

One striking visual thing is that the FBI released video last night of the person believed to have planted those pipe bombs in front of both Democratic and Republican headquarters on the night before the Capitol was breached. You can see the person dropping a backpack at one location, they're being described as viable pipe bombs that could have gone off. The FBI is offering a reward of $100,000 to anyone with information leading to the person's arrest, they think the bombs may have been designed as a distraction to draw police to those scenes while rioters storm the Capitol.

They're not sure of that theory, and of course, the bombs didn't go off. Also, President Biden's Defense Secretary, General Lloyd Austin now says the National Guard deployment that began January 6th will be extended until late May, an indication that they must think the threat of domestic terrorism focused on Congress has not ended. With us now is NPR congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales who's been following post-January 6th developments. Hi Claudia, thanks for coming on to this on just WNYC when there are hundreds of public radio stations around the country. Welcome to the show.

Claudia: Thanks so much, Brian for having me.

Brian: First, I see you tweeted out some of the FBI video of the alleged pipe bomber, can you describe for the radio audience what's there to be seen?

Claudia: Yes, this is a case that has really bedeviled the federal officials' investigators looking into this that we don't have a scent who this person is. Now, previously we just had some images of this individual near the site where these pipe bombs were discovered. Now, we're seeing this individual in other portions of the area of Washington DC with a backpack, with a hoodie, very difficult to discern who this person is visually. It's very clear that the FBI is trying to get closer to identifying this person by putting out this new additional footage, getting a sense of where they were before these pipe bombs were planted.

It just escalates the questions here, and the FBI hopes it'll escalate their leads by releasing these new images as well.

Brian: Those were real pipe bombs they believe that could have gone off?

Claudia: They have said that these had the potential to cause destruction, they were discovered at the headquarters for the Democratic and Republican parties offices here in the Washington DC area. I've spoken to some folks about this including the former Capitol Police Chief, this is Steven Sund, who raised concerns that this was all part of a larger plot to distract the police and law enforcement ahead of the attack on the Capitol.

There's a lot of really big concerns here and we've heard his theory repeated by others that perhaps they were connected to the mob attack in some way as well.

Brian: This theory that they might have been meant to go off as the breach of the Capitol was taking place that afternoon to draw police away from the Capitol, is that just speculation or is there any evidence indicating that?

Claudia: We don't have any evidence. This is just what we're hearing from officials who were on deck that day, such as Sund himself, but if we look at Sund's testimony, what he has brought before congressional investigators so far in terms of his request to get the National Guard here to the Capitol and other efforts that day and up to that day, a lot of it has checked out so it's something to keep an eye on for sure.

Brian: Defense secretary Austin has now extended the National Guard presence in DC until late May. Is he concerned about any specific domestic terror threat that you know of?

Claudia: They have not expressed any specific threats other than some concerns that were raised in this pile of conspiracy theories that there were some individuals out there perhaps some militia type group, they were not identified, that believed that former President Trump was somehow going to be inaugurated again into office last week. We heard about specific threats last week, and concerns that the National Guard needed to be on high alert. We saw the Capitol pullback dramatically that day, this was last Thursday.

The House was not in session, a lot of the traffic here that we do see even during the pandemic was downscaled. That is the only threat we've heard of that said, Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman for Capitol Police made this request last week, the National Guard was due to leave on Friday, but she requested that they stay an additional 60 days. Now Austin did not approve the full capacity that we have seen in recent weeks which is about 5300 members of the guard who have been at this perimeter and beyond this new perimeter set for the Capitol with this new fencing system.

He wants to see that cut in about half in the coming weeks and bring that down to 2300 and even the potential to scale that back even further, but the plan is that they will continue to have a presence here even if we don't have any specific threats to speak of going forward until May 23rd.

Brian: My guest is NPR congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales is covering post-January 6th developments. Claudia, I see they're still arresting people who allegedly committed crimes during the riot. Reading from an AP dispatch from Monday, it says, "Two men wanted in the deadly riot at the US Capitol were arrested over the weekend including one who reportedly served as a bodyguard to former President Donald Trump's longtime political confidant Roger Stone."

Federal authority said Monday, Roberto Minuta breached the Capitol grounds and, "Aggressively berated and taunted US Capitol Police officers," during the January 6th insurrection. That was a quote from the FBI and court papers and it says also arrested over the weekend was Isaac Steve Sturgeon, 32 of Dillon Montana, who is charged with shoving a metal police barricade into police officers during the insurrection according to court records.

Do you know anything about that reported Roger Stone bodyguard or if this arrest suggests coordination from higher people close to Trump that we haven't heard about before?

Claudia: This just signals that the FBI is continuing to make some really deep progress into these arrests, as we know about 300 have been charged for the breach at the Capitol on January 6th. I'm not as familiar with the specifics in terms of the ties to Roger Stone, I've read up as well on those latest updates and the newest arrest, but it just tells you how far along the FBI is in trying to make these arrests. We know from testimony from the acting Capitol Police Chief, again that's Yogananda Pittman, who said that she estimated about 800 individuals made their way inside the Capitol.

When we look at the numbers here, the FBI is really making some dramatic progress already charging hundreds of these individuals and so I imagine that as they move deeper into this investigation, reveal the identities more of others who were here, we could hear more cases like this where we hear about individuals who may be more familiar to us, who may have even worked in the government previously under the Trump administration.

Brian: Some of our listeners certainly heard your report this week on Morning Edition about a task force report that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi impaneled and commissioned that suggested, among other things, allowing the head of the DC National Guard to order emergency backup without seeking higher approval. That bureaucratic requirement was a problem on January 6th?

Claudia: Yes. That turned out to be a problem. This is one of the many issues that was noted by this task force. Pelosi appointed retired Lieutenant General Russel Honoré to direct this task force, more than a dozen individuals some with connections to Capitol security in the past or the military, and they met with officials including members of Congress, their staff to put together this lengthy report, 13-page report issuing a very long list of recommendations and yes, bureaucracy did become an issue that day, it had been an issue leading up to that day.

For example, Steven Sund, the former Capitol Police Chief who was on deck that day that I spoke to, said that he had requested the National Guard in advance of January 6th and he was denied by this arcane group, this Capitol Police board that oversees the agency. It's comprised of the Chief himself, the Sergeant at Arms of the House and the Senate. These are the top security protocol officers in each chamber, plus a member of the architect of the Capitol.

He had sought this permission and he was rejected and he checked in with the DC National Guard commander, they happened to be friends. This is William Walker. His understanding was if I need you that day, you guys will be able to show up quickly. Yes, that was the agreement when they were done, but it didn't turn out that way. Sund has said he called multiple times to get that request on the day of the acting Capitol Police Chief, Yogananda Pittman pulled his phone records, said he had called a half a dozen times to the Sergeant at Arms and others in the first hour of the insurrection pleading for this assistant.

Walker himself said it was a frantic call, Sund was emotional and so he couldn't get this approval. This board was standing in his way before the insurrection and the day of, and it really caused some really dramatic delays that ended up with what we saw come out that day.

Brian: Kind of a bigger picture, Claudia, you quote, Capitol Police Chief, Yogananda Pittman saying there's been a 94% increase this year in threats to members of Congress compared to last year, but also more than double the threats between 2017 through 2020. Over that period it doubled, even before January 6th. With most of the suspects coming from outside the DC area, according to those stats, what does any of that tell you?

Claudia: It just shows you the times that we're living and in terms of how much more dangerous the job is here as a lawmaker and back in their home districts and their homes that we are living in such times of extremism that the concerns are heightened. We saw it play out the day of the Capitol attack and we're seeing it from individual members, as they tell stories about various threats that they're getting in the adjustments they need to make.

This goes also to the honorary report that was issued this week. It also pointed to that as a grave concern and that there needs to be a uniform security system for these members because times have changed and they need to take these threats more seriously. That's what we saw in the buildup to the insurrection, is these threats were not taken as seriously as they should have been.

Now the moment has changed the thinking here, which is we need to take all of this seriously. We need to provide members with a uniform system of security. We need to ramp up our efforts on being involved when they do travel, make sure they're secure, make sure they have a uniform security system across all of their member offices all over the country and their homes. It's just a new normal that everyone needs to live with today. This is what everyone is pointing to here.

Brian: A few more minutes left with NPR congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales is covering post-January 6th developments. Last week, FBI Director, Christopher Wray testified before Congress and invoke the T-word a number of times. This clip relates specifically to the Capitol riot.

Christopher: That siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple. It's behavior that we, the FBI view as domestic terrorism. It's got no place in our democracy and tolerating it would make a mockery of our nation's rule of law.

Brian: He also said this more generally.

Christopher: The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and it's not going away anytime soon.

Brian: Claudia, why did you pull those two particular clips from Christopher Wray for your story last week after he testified for hours?

Claudia: It's really telling in terms of the shift in the thinking of where we are today. For example, I've been hearing a lot from Michigan Representative Elissa Slotkin, who has talked about the post 911 era is over and she points to domestic terrorism as the next stage for federal, state, local law enforcement agencies to ramp up their focus. This has been a blind spot, basically, we're hearing it from her and others and the focus needs to be on these threats of domestic terrorism.

They need to be taken more seriously, the resources need to be put in place to address them. We heard Christopher Ray there say that in a sense, he agrees with those viewpoints, that his agency is focusing on these threads. He also pointed to escalating number of cases when it comes to domestic terrorism, white extremists, and the threats that they bring along in terms of what we're seeing on a national scale. It just really hits that tone that times have changed and we have a new focus here and January, 6th could really, really change the way we look at domestic terrorism in a very new way and how to address it.

Brian: Before you go, you reported that House Democrats want a deeper dive report than the Task Force One on Capitol security that they just received a 911 commission style report, but they don't have bipartisan support from Republicans. Would House Republicans not want that for any reason?

Claudia: We already have heard some objections from Republicans. This was an idea that was initiated by House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, early on after the insurrection. It appeared that perhaps it could have the momentum to pass not one, but both chambers of Congress here in the House and the Senate. However, we did start to hear from Republicans, including House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who raised concerns that this 911 style commission to address the insurrection would not have enough Republican input into how it would look into this issue.

Now, we should note that when the commission for 911 was put together, it was a year after 911 and their report came out two years later. They are trying to do this on a very quick pace here but we're already seeing those objections from some Republicans and Democrats on their end, because we are living in such partisan times here in the Capitol of race concerns, of what members would they appoint to this commission, would they be perhaps allies of former President Trump?

Instead of trying to look into what happened leading up to the insurrection, what caused these security failures, could they try and sabotage those efforts? We see a lot of distrust on both sides, we're not clear whether it has that bipartisan support. I thought that Illinois Republican Representative, Rodney Davis brought up a very interesting point this past week, which is we also have division when it comes to the Senate versus the House on how they handle security.

They're both proceeding on investigations of January 6th on different tracks. They're not doing this together at this time. That's going to be another piece of this that needs to be addressed before they can move forward, possibly on a bipartisan basis.

Brian: NPR congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales, keep up the great work. Thanks for joining us one-on-one on The Brian Lehrer Show today. We'll hear you on the network.

Claudia: Great to be with you. Thanks again.

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