30-year-old Virginia resident Brian Cole Jr has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the prime and lone suspect in the placement of pipebombs on the eve of 5 January 2021 in Washington, DC.
According to the allegations by the federal authorities in the United States, the young black man crafted two homemade pipebombs from household materials, such as galvanized metal pipes and kitchen timers, with the addition of gunpowder. He placed one at the Republican National Committee Headquarters and the other at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC. Thankfully, neither device detonated, despite their having the capacity to do.
The suspect committed the crime on 5 January, the day before the 6 January Capitol riots, an infamous event that was heavily investigated by Democratic lawmakers and the FBI, led by Director Christopher Wray, under President Biden’s administration. However, despite a reported 5,000 FBI agents working on the case and over 1,500 arrests being made, the person who placed explosives at both major parties’ headquarters still managed to get away scot-free for nearly five years…
The suspect is described as an ‘anarchist’ in media reports. The fact that he targeted both major parties falls in line with that description. The anarchist movement was prevalent in the late 19th to early 20th century. Its followers assassinated multiple world leaders at the time, including US President William McKinley in 1901.
Cole is now in federal custody.
At a press conference announcing the arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi took shots at the previous administration, claiming that the ‘evidence has been sitting there collecting dust,’ adding: ‘This wasn’t a new tip. It wasn’t some new evidence. It was the hard work of President Trump’s administration.’
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, also heavily involved in the prosecution of this case, echoed similar sentiments on her recent appearance on Fox News.
She stated that agents had been removed from the J6 pipe bomber case under the Biden administration. She also explained that FBI agents restarted the investigation by tracking down where and when each of the household objects used in the making of the pipebombs was sold—something the FBI under President Biden never pursued. Still according to Piro, more materials that could be potentially used for home-made explosives were found at the suspect’s apartment at the time of his arrest.
She also described the alleged perp as secluded and quiet, who was living with his parents and sisters while working at his father’s bail bonds company.
The Biden administration’s quick abandonment of the issue prompted some on the internet to speculate that the placement of the pipebombs was an ‘inside job’. A female DC police officer was even circulated online as a potential suspect. However, with these new developments, that theory has become very unlikely.
What is more likely, however, is that the previous administration’s FBI decided not to pursue the case because the suspect’s race and his lack of affiliation with right-wing politics did not fit their preferred narrative about the events around the 6 January riots.
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