FBI agents have arrested a man who allegedly placed pipe bombs in the District of Columbia on Jan. 5, 2021, officials announced on Dec. 4.
The man, Brian Cole Jr., is accused of putting bombs consisting of a pipe, end caps, electrical wire, a battery, and other materials near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee buildings in the District of Columbia.
He was charged with transporting explosive devices in interstate commerce and attempted destruction with explosive material.
Cole purchased the pipes and kitchen timers in 2019 and 2020 at stores including Home Depot and Walmart that he used to manufacture the devices, according to records obtained by investigators and described in an affidavit filed in federal court in support of the charges.
Cell phone records placed Cole in the vicinity of the buildings on Jan. 5, 2021, and a Nissan Sentra he owns was spotted driving in the area that evening, an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit.
FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters on Thursday 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. 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 to find a common link with purchases of pipe, wires, and other materials.
Cole resides in Woodbridge, Virginia, with his mother and other relatives, officials said. He did not have a lawyer listed on the court docket. Emails sent to addresses associated with him went unreturned.
Search warrants are being executed at places associated with Cole, officials said. The overall investigation is active, and additional charges may be brought.
Pipe Bombs and Investigation
The FBI has for nearly five years been investigating the pipe bombs, but had made no arrests until Thursday, even with a $500,000 reward it was offering for information.
Surveillance footage showing a person the FBI said was the individual who placed the bombs revealed few characteristics. The person was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, a mask, and black gloves.
Neither bomb went off.
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 has said the bombs could have detonated.
“When Dan Bongino and I came to the FBI in March, the pipe bomb investigation had been stalled for going on 5 years,” Patel said on X on Thursday.
“We rebuilt it from scratch—re-running every lead, re-testing every piece of evidence, bringing in top experts, and deploying new technology to engineer the break that finally nailed the suspect.”
—Zachary Stieber, Savannah Pointer, Stacy Robinson
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