OPINION:
Brian Cole Jr. told investigators he was “disappointed” by the 2020 election results the night he placed two pipe bombs near Republican and Democratic national headquarters on Capitol Hill.
I assume his self-appointed role as protester (and potential killer) would allow his attorneys to argue to a judge that he is covered by President Trump’s sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 defendants. Hundreds invaded the Capitol building and grounds that day to back Mr. Trump’s repeated claims that the election was stolen to make Joseph R. Biden president.
“This guy was an equal opportunity bomber,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told ABC News. “He was disappointed to a great deal in the system, both sides of the system.”
She said he got rid of his telltale Nike Air Max shoes after placing the bombs.
Unless Mr. Cole is clairvoyant, his personal chronology meshes with some other political agenda, not the 2020 election results.
According to a seven-page FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Mr. Cole began buying bomb components in 2019, well before anyone had any idea the Nov. 3, 2020, election would ignite Mr. Trump and MAGA’s fury. Wearing a face mask and hooded sweatshirt, Mr. Cole hid the explosives near pedestrian walkways in the evening darkness of Jan. 5, the Justice Department charged in his arrest Dec. 4 in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he lives with his mother.
Mr. Cole’s documented retail transactions showed he purchased pipe caps, wiring and battery connectors that matched the components in his constructed bombs confiscated by the FBI.
“During 2019 and 2020, Cole purchased multiple items consistent with the components that were used to manufacture the pipe bombs placed at the RNC and DNC,” the affidavit states. “Cole used the accounts to purchase these items from physical retail locations in northern Virginia.”
Let’s look at the FBI affidavit’s inventory and pre-Nov. 3, 2020, dates.
- “Cole purchased a total of 12 black end caps and 2 galvanized end caps from four different Home Depots in northern Virginia on or about the following dates: October 22, 2019, and March 10, June 20, July 8, and November 16, 2020.”
- “Both pipe bombs used a mix of 14-gauge red and black electrical wire. Cole purchased 14-gauge electrical wire in red and black on or about May 23 and October 22, 2019, and on or about September 27, October 7, and November 24, 2020.”
- “Cole purchased five of the Nine Volt Distributor’s nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center in northern Virginia on or about November 12 and December 28, 2019, including cash purchases made during the December transaction.”
- “Both pipe bombs were manufactured using a white kitchen-style timer. Cole purchased two white kitchen timers from a Walmart in northern Virginia on or about June 3, 2020.”
Again, if Mr. Cole were planning for an election protest, he was the most clairvoyant man in the DMV.
As one of his first acts as second-term president on Jan. 20, Mr. Trump issued mass pardons of protesters and rioters convicted under Mr. Biden, whose FBI made their prosecution its top priority.
Mr. Trump named 14 people in his proclamation whose prison sentences he commuted and then added “grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
The types of “offenses” and their locations seem wide open to interpretation, but the fact that Mr. Trump sets a specific date, Jan. 6, might preclude Mr. Cole.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation,” Mr. Trump said in an order that eventually pardoned nearly 1,600 defendants.
The Daily Wire looked into the Cole family background. It found that the father, Brian Cole Sr., is an owner of bail bonds companies, one of which championed the release of illegal migrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention during Mr. Trump’s first term.
At one point, the elder Mr. Cole was represented by left-wing activist lawyer Benjamin Crump, and they appeared together at a press conference. Just two months before his son planted the bombs, an appeals court backed a judge who threw out Mr. Cole’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. Amid the dispute, Mr. Cole accused a federal prosecutor of racism.
The FBI affidavit includes evidence that Mr. Cole, 30, surveilled his targets.
“Approximately three weeks before the pipe bombs were placed, on or about December 14, 2020, Cole made a purchase at a restaurant located near First and D Streets, Southeast,” the affidavit says in recounting Mr. Cole’s neighborhood walk-through. “The restaurant is located across the street from the entrance to Rumsey Court on D Street, Southeast.”
The FBI also said Mr. Cole’s Nissan Sentra passed a license plate reader on the South Capitol Street exit from Interstate 395 at 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 5, about 24 minutes before the bomber was first seen on foot by surveillance cameras.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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