By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
FBI agents have arrested a man who allegedly placed pipe bombs in the District of Columbia on Jan. 5, 2021, officials confirmed on Thursday.
“Today’s arrest happened because the Trump administration has made this case a priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a briefing in the nation’s capital. “There was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” she added later.
The man has been identified as Brian Cole Jr. He was charged with transporting explosive devices in interstate commerce and attempted destruction with explosive material, violating federal law.
FBI Director Kash Patel told the briefing that there was no new information, but a new team of investigators and experts sifted through existing evidence and generated new leads that ultimately resulted in Cole’s arrest.
Patel said that 3 million “lines of information” were pored over, while U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the investigation included going through 233,000 sales of the type of black endcaps used to build the bombs and find a common link with purchases of pipe, wires and other materials.
Search warrants are being executed at places associated with Cole, officials said. The overall investigation is also active and additional charges may be brought.
“The FBI’s arrest of the alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber is a tremendous breakthrough in a mystery that has haunted the country for nearly five years,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of a House of Representatives select subcommittee investigating Jan. 6, said on X. “I want to thank the FBI for their diligence and continued partnership with my Select Subcommittee in sharing documents, informant information and other evidence.”
Emails to addresses associated with Cole did not yield any responses. It’s not clear whether he has hired an attorney.
One pipe bomb was placed outside the Democratic National Committee office on Jan. 5, 2021. The other was left that same day outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee. Surveillance footage showed a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a mask placing the bombs; no arrests had been made in the investigation for nearly five years.
Neither bomb went off, and law enforcement officers found them the following day as Congress convened in the U.S. Capitol to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI said in 2021 the bombs “could have detonated, causing innocent bystanders to be seriously injured or killed.” Former FBI official Steven D’Antuono, though, told members of Congress in 2023 that the timers on the bombs were such that they could not have detonated.
A congressional panel said in January that the FBI identified some persons of interest in the case but had still not identified any suspects and had declined to give members additional information about the leads it had followed.
The bureau had been offering a $500,000 reward for information about the person who placed the bombs, and officials had repeatedly said they were working hard to identify the individual.
“Shortly after swearing in, the director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on X in May. “We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases,” with the pipe bombing investigation among them.
The FBI in October released new footage and reiterated the reward being offered.
