FBI arrests Virginia man in Jan. 6 pipe bomb case
Justice Department officials said investigators revisited reams of evidence this year and found the “needle in a haystack” that led to a suspect.
Updated
December 4, 2025 at 7:26 p.m. EST 26 minutes ago
EPA, via Shutterstock
By Salvador Rizzo, Olivia George, Aaron C. Davis and Perry Stein
Federal agents on Thursday arrested a Virginia man suspected of planting pipe bombs near the headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, a long-awaited breakthrough in the case after investigators hit dead ends for nearly five years.
Despite interviews with more than 1,000 people, a $500,000 bounty announced by the FBI and video footage showing a suspect removing what appeared to be a pipe bomb from a bag, investigators struggled to find leads until a fresh review of the evidence was commissioned this year.
Justice Department officials identified the suspect as Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia, who was charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and attempted malicious destruction by means of an explosive material.
“America is safer — D.C. is safer — because he’s in custody,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference.
The pipe bombs — discovered in an alley behind the RNC offices and underneath a park bench near the DNC headquarters just as droves of President Donald Trump’s supporters were mobbing the U.S. Capitol several blocks away — inflamed the panic in Washington as Congress attempted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI has said that the bombs were capable of injuring people had they detonated and that their discovery apparently diverted law enforcement attention from the Capitol as the Jan. 6 riots began to unfold. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was in the Democratic National Committee offices at the time, and her Secret Service detail evacuated her from the premises when the bombs were discovered.
Law enforcement officials are investigating a motive, but two people familiar with the matter described the 30-year-old Cole as an extremist in his political beliefs. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing investigation. Bondi said federal agents were still executing search warrants and gathering evidence as of Thursday afternoon, “and there could be more charges to come.”
Charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington described how investigators matched the pipes, end caps, battery connectors, kitchen timers, electrical wires and steel wool retrieved from the undetonated bombs to purchases Cole had made in 2019 and 2020 at several Northern Virginia stores, including Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart. An FBI agent said in an affidavit that Cole “continued to make purchases of components used in bomb making” after planting the explosive devices near the two political parties’ offices on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.
Cole’s cellphone location data placed him near the scene that night, the FBI agent said, and a license plate reader recorded the 2017 Nissan Sentra registered under Cole’s name at a nearby off-ramp around the same time.
Before Thursday, the lack of an arrest had spurred baseless claims from Trump and other Republicans, with many suggesting the FBI did not want to solve the case because a member of an anti-fascist group — not a Trump supporter — had placed the explosives. Some also suggested the FBI was involved in the planting of the pipe bombs.
The FBI’s co-deputy director, Dan Bongino, was among those who speculated about the pipe bomber on his popular podcast during the Biden administration. He said then, without evidence, that the FBI knew the identity of the bomber and that it was an inside job.
The FBI has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing.
The information that led to Thursday’s arrest was not new, Bondi and other officials said. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in D.C., described how investigators revisited reams of evidence this year and found a “needle in a haystack” that eventually led to the suspect.
The FBI identified about 233,000 sales in 2020 of the same type of black end caps that had been used to assemble the pipe bombs, as well as thousands of other transactions involving the same kinds of pipes, wires and batteries found in the explosives, she said. “Every one of those had to be mined and re-mined to the point where we were able to then connect,” Pirro said.
Bondi said, “The FBI, along with U.S. Attorney Pirro and all of our prosecutors, have worked tirelessly for months, sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden administration for four long years.”
According to the charging documents filed Thursday, surveillance footage confirmed that the same person — “wearing dark pants, a grey hooded sweatshirt, dark gloves, Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes” — planted both explosive devices. The FBI affidavit says Cole resides with his mother and other relatives and works in the office of a bail bondsman in Northern Virginia.
A woman at his grandmother’s house said of the allegations, “We don’t know anything. They haven’t told us anything all day long.”
Asked about Cole, she said: “He’s a quiet boy. I really don’t think he could do what they say.”
Calls and texts to other family members were not immediately returned.
A high school classmate of Cole’s described him as a quiet but friendly student. Brian Hallenbeck said Cole often sat alone at school or on the bus, wearing headphones and looking at a notebook.
“For the most part, people didn’t pay him much mind, but unfortunately I remember times of him being bullied,” Hallenbeck told The Washington Post through text messages. “What I most vividly remember is people pointing and laughing at him or calling him out for being a ‘My Little Pony’ fan. It was the theme of his backpack, and he had some of the toys.”
Hallenbeck said he never knew Cole to be aggressive or violent. “I’d go as far as to say I never saw him be disrespectful to anyone,” he said.
In a quiet, wooded neighborhood in Prince William County, 25 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, neighbors readying for school and work on Thursday morning were startled by the noise of a bullhorn. Some spotted dozens of FBI agents and teams in camouflage surrounding the home where the suspect is thought to have lived.
One neighbor said she had already felt her house shake from the familiar percussion of artillery rounds at nearby Marine Corps Base Quantico, so she initially didn’t think much of the noises outside. But through the woods, she could soon see the agents in camouflage fanning out between the trees.
By late morning, Prince William County police had closed off the street where dozens of government vehicles clogged the cul-de-sac heading to the home being searched. Agents wearing rubber gloves entered and exited through the front door. After 2 p.m., several agents began emptying the home’s garage, removing a barbecue grill, lawn mower, plastic crates and then cardboard boxes, working along one wall, then another.
FBI officials previously had said the investigation of the pipe bomb suspect was complicated by a number of factors, including that the incident occurred during the coronavirus pandemic and that the bomber was wearing a face covering, which at that time would not have raised suspicion among onlookers. Additionally, the person placed the pipe bombs hours before they were discovered, leaving plenty of time to escape.
DNC Chair Ken Martin thanked law enforcement officials in a statement after the arrest: “Those responsible for this horrific act must be brought to justice, and political violence should never be accepted in America.”
RNC Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement that “the Biden administration allowed a terrorist to walk the streets” for four years. “We are grateful to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, and the federal law enforcement professionals who prioritized this case and delivered long-overdue answers to the American people,” he said.
Clarence Williams, Aaron Schaffer, Emma Uber, Jon Swaine and Ellie Silverman contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... dc-arrest/
Note: The above pic is from the WaPo article
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