Federal authorities accused a Virginia man Thursday of laying pipe bombs at the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, ending a nearly five-year search.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Brian Cole, 30, of Woodbridge was charged with use of an explosive device.
She said more charges could be forthcoming as the investigation continues. Officials provided no potential motive.
“Today’s arrest happened because the Trump administration has made this case a priority,” the attorney general 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 President Trump installed new leaders at the FBI.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest did not result from any new tips but rather from revisiting the extensive evidence that had been compiled and remained dormant during the Biden administration.
“We brought in a new team of investigators and experts, reexamined every piece of evidence, sifted through all the data, something that the prior administration refused and failed to do,” Mr. Patel said.
“As a result of that, we generated numerous investigative leads, executed multiple legal processes with the U.S. attorney partners, and came to this conclusion today, and that is why we were able to safely secure this individual,” he said.
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the link was like “finding a needle in a haystack.”
She said her office looked into the purchase records and customer details of 233,000 black end caps of the sort used to make the crude bombs.
The dearth of answers fomented a hotbed of conspiracy theories for years. The security detail and motorcade for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were within 20 feet of one of the viable explosives.
One theory originated from Dan Bongino, the FBI’s second-in-command. As a private citizen, he suggested last year that the devices were part of a “massive cover-up” because the perpetrator was “either a connected anti-Trump insider, or this was an inside job.”
Mr. Bongino did not speak about his past musings Thursday.
His focus at the press briefing was on how the arrest provided closure for investigators and for residents and tourists in the District.
“You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset,” Mr. Bongino said. “We were going to track this person to the end of the earth; there was no way he was getting away.”
The public received much of its information about the incident from grainy surveillance footage shared by the FBI.
The video showed a person wearing a hoodie, glasses, gloves and a face mask placing bombs outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters and in an alley behind the Republican National Committee offices.
Ms. Harris was at the DNC on Jan. 6, 2021. She was evacuated after authorities spotted the bomb along the building’s perimeter.
None of the explosives detonated, but federal officials said the bombs were active and capable of lethal damage.
Investigators pieced together surveillance footage from the neighborhood, according to charging documents.
Prosecutors accused Mr. Cole of laying a bomb at the DNC shortly before 8 p.m. and another behind the RNC just after 8:15 p.m.
The court filing said the FBI used the footage to conduct a height analysis, which determined that the perpetrator was 5 feet, 7 inches, with a 1-inch margin of error. The affidavit listed Mr. Cole’s height at 5 feet, 6 inches.
Along with identifying and matching bank and credit card accounts used to purchase the bomb-making materials, the FBI obtained historical records associated with the cell towers in the immediate vicinity of the RNC and DNC on Jan. 5, 2021, the affidavit said.
Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky released a report earlier this year saying a former senior FBI official had testified that the major cell carrier companies provided “corrupted” data to the FBI and suggested that this “corrupted” data may have contained the identity of the pipe bomb perpetrator.
“However, in responses to letters from the Subcommittee, the major cell carriers confirmed that they did not provide corrupted data to the FBI and that the FBI never notified them of any issues with accessing the cellular data,” the lawmakers said.
The congressional report said the FBI conducted nearly 1,000 interviews, issued geofence warrants that required telecommunication providers to present location data on devices, analyzed cellphone tower data, and investigated the source of the devices’ components.
Investigators even zeroed in on distinctive Nike sneakers to examine who had purchased the shoes around the time the bombs were placed.
The report said at least 10 Secret Service agents and two canine units came within feet of the pipe bomb before Ms. Harris arrived at the DNC, but they did not detect the explosives.
“U.S. Capitol Police failed to properly secure and maintain a perimeter around the pipe bombs despite multiple orders to do so, allowing pedestrians and vehicular traffic to cross within feet of the explosive devices,” said the report, adding that law enforcement allowed the motorcade of the House speaker to drive through an active bomb scene, risking the speaker’s safety.
Despite the FBI’s offer of a $500,000 reward for information in the case, the investigation largely stalled until the Thursday arrest of Mr. Cole.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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