The 30-year-old man and accused him of leaving pipe bombs outside Democratic and Republican offices on the eve of the January 6 riots, is facing federal felony charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced.
Brian Cole, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was identified as the suspect in the case following his arrest by the FBI. He has not yet appeared in court, but the charges against him were announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
He has been charged with the use of an explosive device and more charges are possible as part of the ongoing investigation.
“Let me be clear: There was no new tip, there was no new witness. Just good diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” Bondi said.
Hours after Cole was taken into custody by officials, unmarked law enforcement vehicles lined the cul-de-sac by his home, which is located around 25 miles from Capitol Hill. Authorities were seen entering the house and examining the trunk of a car nearby, with FBI agents turning away curious onlookers.
For years, the FBI had asked for information about the suspect who left the devices outside of the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee just hours before an angry mob stormed the Capitol to protest Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Thousands of Trump supporters marched up the steps of the historic building and forced entry, forcing lawmakers to barricade themselves into their offices. Five people died within 36 hours of the incident, including one protester shot by police and a police officer who died of a stroke after being set upon by insurrectionists.
No one was hurt before the bombs were rendered safe. But the FBI previously described them as being “viable,” and said that they “could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders.”
The devices were at least partially made of 1x8-inch threaded galvanized pipes, end caps, kitchen timers, wires, metal clips and homemade black powder, the FBI said.
They were discovered on the afternoon of January 6 as police responded to rioting at the Capitol. The discovery prompted the evacuation of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from the DNC headquarters.
In the years since, investigators had sought the public’s help in identifying a shadowy individual seen on surveillance camera, but were unable to answer basic questions including the person’s gender or whether the act was connected to the January 6 riot.
In October, the FBI had offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and released surveillance footage of an individual they believed to be a suspect.
The man in that footage was approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black gloves, and black-and-gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf Shoes with a yellow swoosh logo. The FBI noted that fewer than 25,000 pairs of these sneakers were sold between August 2018 and January 2021.
The suspect also used a backpack to transport the devices.
Despite the surveillance footage and physical description, along with hundreds of tips and interviews, the bureau had struggled to pin down a suspect. As a result, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media outlets promoted numerous conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs.
Dan Bongino, prior to becoming FBI deputy director, floated the possibility last year that the act was an “inside job” and involved a “massive cover-up.” Before joining the agency Bongino was a conservative political commentator and host of The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble. He also hosted Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox News until April 2023.
However, since joining the FBI in March, he has promised that the pipe bombs investigation would be a top priority.
“We brought in new personnel to take a look at the case, we flew in police officers and detectives working as TFOs (task force officers) to review FBI work, we conducted multiple internal reviews, held countless in person and SVTC meetings with investigative team members, we dramatically increased investigative resources, and we increased the public award for information in the case to utilize crowd-sourcing leads,” Bongino wrote in a long post on X last month.
