Federal authorities arrested a Virginia man Thursday in connection to the placing of pipe bombs near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi identified Brian Cole Jr. as the suspect, during a press conference that included leaders describing teamwork and how investigators and experts reevaluated existing evidence to generate new investigative leads.
An unsealed federal affidavit detailed the purchase history, cell phone location records and license plate records that investigators say connected the pipe bombs to Cole, who lives in Woodbridge, Va. And a criminal complaint showed Cole faces two charges — one related to the transportation of an explosive device and another tied to attempted malicious destruction through fire and explosive material.
Bondi said the investigation is ongoing and search warrants are being executed. But she and other officials declined to detail much about the evidence or potential future charges, emphasizing that America and the District of Columbia are safer “because he’s in custody.”
It is a stunning break in one of the most enduring mysteries of the days before and after the 2021 Capitol attack, with the years-long investigation frustrating lawmakers who sought answers from federal authorities.
“We brought in a team of experts who are the best at what they do in their specific fields to reevaluate that evidence, to dive back in and to not come back with a no for an answer until they had found the suspect,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
“When you develop evidence, you get a search warrant. And when you get a search warrant, you get an address. And when you get an address, you hit the house,” Patel said.
When asked about potential motives for placing the pipe bombs, Bondi responded: “Right now, it’s ongoing. Again, we just executed the search warrant early, early this morning.”
Bondi took swipes at the handling of the investigation under the Biden administration and said the “evidence has been sitting there collecting dust.”
“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 enforcement agencies. This cold case languished for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director [Dan] Bongino came to the FBI.”
Authorities said the suspect, on the eve of the Capitol attack, placed a pipe bomb outside of the Democratic National Committee office and minutes later planted another near the Republican National Committee office — both offices a short walk from the Capitol building. Federal authorities said both were viable devices.
Underscoring the urgency of the case, the agency put forward a $500,000 reward for information that helps identify the person, released video footage of the suspect and provided a timeline of the person’s movement in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.
Criminal case
An affidavit from an FBI special agent identified Cole as a 30-year-old who lives in a single-family house with his mother and other members of his family.
In 2019 and 2020, Cole bought items that were “consistent with the components” used to manufacture the pipe bombs placed near the national committee offices, according to the affidavit.
Cole had purchased galvanized pipe, white kitchen timers, 9-volt battery connectors, 14-gauge electrical wire in red and black and steel wool — all items that were used to manufacture the pipe bombs, according to the affidavit.
Records from Cole’s cell phone provider showed that his phone connected with the provider’s phone tower “consistent with” the phone “being in the area of the RNC and DNC on January 5, 2021,” the affidavit said.
A car registered to Cole was also “observed” driving past a license plate reader located at the South Capitol Street exit from Interstate 395 south, the affidavit said.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said at the press conference that the “case involved millions of pieces of data, and it is a huge win, because it was like finding a needle in a haystack.”
For example, Pirro said, there were 233,000 black endcaps of the type used in the pipe bombs in the case. The arrest affadavit said about that many were distributed by their manufacturer in 2020.
“I want you to think about the fact that the FBI had to go through the sale of every one of them to try to find commonality with an individual, along with the purchase of the pipe itself, the cap ends, the wires, the steel and the 9-volt batteries,” Pirro said. “Every one of those had to be mined and re-mined to the point where we were able to then connect.”
Capital mystery
Over the years, the mystery has provided fertile ground for right-wing conspiracy theories and fervent speculation. On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers criticized the response of law enforcement, saying the delayed discovery of the pipe bombs was a security failure and that authorities struggled to secure a perimeter around the DNC pipe bomb after it was discovered.
Plus, Republican lawmakers repeatedly pressed federal officials for further information over the years. In one instance in 2023, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., confronted then-FBI Director Christopher Wray about the investigation during a committee hearing and asked if Wray could tell lawmakers how the pipe bomb was found at the Democratic National Committee office.
“Nine hundred days ago is when this happened and you said you had total confidence we’d apprehend the subject,” Massie said.
Wray defended the agency’s response, saying they had conducted all logical investigative steps.
In comments made last year, before he started in his current role, Bongino speculated that the planting of the pipe bombs was an “inside job.” He also implied there was a “massive cover-up.”
Bongino, in a social media post last month, addressed the investigation, saying the agency brought in new personnel to look at the case, carried out internal reviews and “dramatically increased investigative resources.”
“Despite the multitude of challenges we faced, one of our first initiatives was to aggressively pursue a new strategy to investigate the January 6 pipe bomb,” Bongino said in the post.
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