WASHINGTON — The Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the eve of the Capitol riot confessed to the crime on Thursday afternoon, sources tell The Post.
Brian Cole Jr., 30, will make an initial appearance in DC federal court Friday afternoon to be formally arraigned on charges of transporting explosives across state lines with intent to kill, injure and cause damage and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.
Investigators arrested Cole and say he placed the viable explosives outside the headquarters of America’s two main political parties on the night of Jan. 5, 2021. The devices were not found for 17 hours, shortly before supporters of President Trump breached the Capitol building, delaying the certification of the 2020 election result by several hours.
Cole’s arrest followed an exhaustive re-examination of the case led by FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
“This is what it’s like when you work for a president who tells you to go get the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement,” Bongino said at a press conference announcing the arrest on Thursday afternoon.
Here’s the latest on the Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect
Federal investigators did not use any new outside tips to nab the suspect — who has eluded police for nearly five years, FBI Director Kash Patel told The Post on Thursday.
“Our team re-examined the case from the ground up after the previous leadership spent four years with no success,” he said. “We engineered this investigation, built the evidentiary trail, and executed the search warrants that finally brought this individual into custody.”
