The FBI arrested a Virginia man on Thursday in its almost five-year investigation into who planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
The bureau believes the man, 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. from Woodbridge, Virginia, compiled bomb-making supplies for months before leaving the viable explosive devices outside of the political offices.
His arrest is a break in one of the biggest mysteries of that day. If Cole were to be convicted, it would end the probe that for years had failed to produce any lead as to who placed the bombs, both just a few blocks away from the US Capitol.
“Let me be clear, there was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a press conference Thursday.
Cole is facing two federal explosives charges. He’s expected to appear before a federal judge in court tomorrow.
Cole was arrested Thursday morning. Law enforcement lined a cul-de-sac and examined a home they say Cole lived in, and CNN saw two people in white hazmat suits bending over and examining something in the street. Others wearing FBI jackets were in the backyard of the home.
CNN has attempted to contact the other residents of the house.
The yearslong investigation is still ongoing, Bondi said, adding that agents were still executing search warrants and that more charges could be brought against Cole.
And neither DOJ officials nor charging documents detailed why he allegedly targeted both the Democratic and Republican political headquarters.
Court documents divulge the police work investigators say tied Cole, who works in the office of a bail bondsman, to the bombs.
Investigators say they linked Cole’s phone data to cell towers around Washington DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The calls and texts he made matched security footage time stamps that show how the bomber moved the evening he planted the devices, they said. They also traced Cole’s credit cards and allegedly identified several purchases in 2019 and 2020 that align with the components used to make both explosive devices, like six galvanized pipes, protective cloves and eye goggles, batteries and kitchen timers.
Cole’s car was also captured on a license plate reader less than a half mile from where the bomber first appears in surveillance video, investigators say.
Until Thursday, the bomber had only been seen in grainy surveillance video shrouded in a hoodie, gloves and a face mask.
Investigators had poured over tens of thousands of video files, hundreds of tips and scoured cell phone tower data. They examined data on sales of black and gray Nike Air Max sneakers worn by the suspect – fewer than 25,000 of the shoes had been sold around the time the bombs were placed.
But they were thwarted by a number of challenges, including poor surveillance video quality. Given the pandemic era when face masks were common, and a cold winter night, the bomber didn’t seem remarkable to any witnesses.
The FBI had offered a $500,000 reward for information that helped investigators identity the person and conducted a thousand interviews, but it still struggled for years to determine who placed the crude bombs on January 5, 2021, the night before then-President Donald Trump would make his last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Both bombs were discovered 15 hours after they were placed, giving the suspect plenty of time to leave the area without being detected, investigators have said.
The investigation faced new scrutiny under the Trump administration, as some allies of the president have fixated on the pipe bomber’s identity as potential proof that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was an “inside job.” One of those allies, Dan Bongino, is now the deputy director of the FBI.
Bongino, who has since gone back on those allegations, said Thursday that a single breakthrough in the case helped investigators identify the man they believe is the pipe bomber.
The breakthrough included “forensic evidence,” Bongino said, but declined to give additional details. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro agreed, saying Thursday that it was an “aha moment.”
“You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset,” Bongino said.
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