Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect charged after cold case arrest

WASHINGTON (CN) — Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest Thursday of a Virginia man suspected of placing a pair of pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters in January 2021.

The suspect, Brian J. Cole Jr., was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, just 35 miles from Washington. Federal prosecutors charged him with two counts of use of an explosive device.

Cole’s arrest brings a potential end to nearly five years of uncertainty surrounding the two improvised explosive devices discovered just an hour before a mob of rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Surveillance footage around the DNC and RNC had shown an individual placing the bombs at 7:54 p.m. and 8:16 p.m., respectively, on Jan. 5.

At Thursday’s press conference, Bondi said that the arrest was not facilitated by a new tip or a new witness but was based on a review of already existing evidence by the FBI at President Donald Trump’s direction.

“Today’s arrest happened because the Trump administration has made this case a priority,” Bondi said. “The total lack of movement on this case in our nation’s capital undermined the public trust of our law enforcement agencies. This cold case languished for years, until Director Patel and Deputy Director [Dan] Bongino came to the FBI.”

None of the officials who spoke Thursday explicitly explained what piece of evidence led investigators to identify Cole as the perpetrator, but Bongino suggested it was forensic evidence.

Bondi indicated that U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro may file additional charges against Cole as the case progresses.

According to the FBI’s affidavit, Cole purchased components throughout 2019 and 2020 that were consistent with the unexploded bombs found outside the DNC and RNC.

Investigators were able to link Cole’s accounts to several purchases of the necessary materials at Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and a Micro Center in northern Virginia between October 2019 and November 2020.

According to the FBI, Cole continued purchasing pipe bomb materials after he placed the bombs on Jan. 5.

At Thursday’s press conference, Patel called the case one “of massive public importance.”

“When you attack American citizens, when you attack our institutions of legislation, when you attack out nation’s capital, you attack the very being of our way of life,” Patel said.

Patel and Bondi claimed that under the Biden administration and former FBI Director Christopher Wray, the relevant evidence had been “sitting there collecting dust.”

“We did not discover any new information,” Patel said. “What we did, an investigation spearheaded by the deputy director and the [assistant director in charge] of our Washington Field Office brought in a new team of investigators and experts, reexamined every piece of evidence, sifted through all the data, something that the prior administration refused and failed to do.”

In the absence of an arrest over the last four years, conspiracy theories surrounding the pipe bombs had become common, many of them purporting that the devises were placed as part of a deep-state plot meant to tie them to Trump and his supporters’ actions on Jan. 6.

Bongino, who was a right-wing podcaster before being elevated to deputy director of the FBI, has spread such conspiracy theories, stating on his show last November that he believed they were placed as part of an “inside job” that the FBI was protecting with a “massive cover-up.”

“This was a setup,” Bongino said. “I have zero doubt.”

Bongino did not allude to his prior statements on Thursday.

Cole faces one count of transporting an explosive device across state lines with intent to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or unlawfully damage property and one count of attempted malicious destruction by means of fire and explosive materials.

The first count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and the second a maximum of 20 years in prison, as the devices did not explode and cause injury or death.

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