He is charged with explosives offenses. Brian Cole was caught through credit card records, cell phone data, court papers say.
By Catholics for Catholics
The FBI on Thursday captured a man accused of positioning two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington, right before the alleged U.S. Capitol attack.
The move was a brusque step forward in an investigation that for years flummoxed law enforcement and birthed alleged conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021.
The Daily Wire reported the arrest marks the first time detectives have publicly identified a suspect in an act that has been a persisting secret for almost five years in the shadow of the Capitol fracas.
Attorney General Pam Bondi blasted the Biden administration for not solving the case for four years, saying, “The total lack of movement undermined trust in law enforcement.”
“It languished for four years until Kash Patel and Dan Bongino came to the FBI. There was no new tip, no new witness, the information had been sitting at the FBI for four years,” Bondi added.
According to an FBI affidavit, Brian J. Cole Jr is 30 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, works as a bail bondsman, and resides with his mother in Woodbridge, Virginia. The feds say that Cole used credit cards to purchase bomb-making equipment from Virginia stores.
The Wire reported that Cole bought six pipes, 12 black end caps, and electrical wires from several different Home Depots between May 2019 and November 2020. He also bought steel wool, which was packed inside the pipe bombs, from the national chain.
In addition, Cole acquired five nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center, some using cash, and bought kitchen timers from Walmart, according to the charging documents. He also bought tools like protective gloves and disinfectant wipes on November 24, 2020.
The probe of the pipe bomber dragged on for almost five years, and many doubted that the federal government would ever find the perpetrator. In one instance, the FBI offered the public a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who planted bombs at the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Dan Bongino, the FBI’s Deputy Director said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that federal investigators closed in on Cole through “internal work” and “not a public tip.”
“You are not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices, and get away. We would track him to the end of the earth. We didn’t have to track him that far, he wound up being in Woodbridge, Virginia,” Bongino said.
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