Google’s Secret Warrant Fight Over DOJ Pipe Bomb Probe Revealed

June 18, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

Google waged a secret court fight against a US warrant demanding identities of hundreds of internet users who searched for the Democratic and Republicanparty headquarters in Washington before pipe bombs were planted there on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, newly unsealed records reveal.

The search giant had cooperated with earlier warrants in the probe, but Google protested that the US Justice Department’s 2023 demand was “grossly overbroad,” documents show. Complying would subject innocent people to government scrutiny based on politically-oriented searches in the aftermath of the divisive 2020 presidential election, the company argued.

A screengrab of video surveillance footage used in 2021 pipe bomb investigation, released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

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