Nearly five years after explosive devices were reportedly planted outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, the Justice Department announced long-awaited charges in a case that has frustrated investigators and fueled nationwide scrutiny.
Federal prosecutors revealed that Brian Cole, a 30-year-old Virginia man, has been arrested and charged, bringing an end to one of the most persistent mysteries surrounding the events of that week.
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro emphasized the significance of the breakthrough at a press conference. “Four years, 10 months and 28 days ago, an individual placed a bomb in the vicinity of both the RNC and the DNC, and for that amount of time, that individual evaded accountability,” she said. “Today… we are finally able to make an arrest of an individual by the name of Brian Cole.”
Cole faces two federal charges: transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and attempted malicious destruction using explosive materials. Though the charges were filed Wednesday, a magistrate judge ordered the complaint unsealed on Thursday.
The case had long served as a point of criticism for the FBI, which endured years of public doubt over its failure to identify a suspect—even as investigators possessed video footage of the masked individual and details such as height estimates and Nike Air Max footwear.
Some of the FBI’s sharpest critics came from officials who now lead the bureau. Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who once publicly questioned whether the bombs might have been an inside job, heralded the arrest as a long-overdue victory. “You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen,” Bongino said. “We were going to track this person to the end of the earth… He wound up in Woodbridge, Virginia.”
Leaders in the Trump administration were quick to highlight what they described as years of stagnation under the prior administration.
Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed that no new tip led to Cole’s arrest. Instead, she said the current DOJ and FBI leadership finally conducted the exhaustive investigative work the case required. “There was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work,” Bondi said. FBI Director Kash Patel echoed that message, noting that the bureau “dove into more than 3 million lines of data… something that the prior administration refused and failed to do.”
According to charging documents, Cole purchased multiple components consistent with those used in the bombs between 2019 and 2020, including 14 end caps from four Northern Virginia Home Depot stores. Pirro underscored the scale of the investigative effort, noting that 233,000 similar end caps were sold nationwide. “Every one of those had to be mined and re-mined,” she said.
Cole’s phone connected to cell towers near the RNC and DNC on Jan. 5, and his vehicle was spotted in the area. The bombs, which were safely disabled, forced a major diversion of law enforcement resources and triggered the evacuation of then-Vice President Kamala Harris from the DNC.
Officials declined to discuss motive, and the charging documents do not indicate whether Cole intended to distract law enforcement or support those who breached the Capitol. The prosecutor assigned to the case, Jocelyn Ballantine, previously oversaw the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy case under the Biden administration.
[READ MORE: Bari Weiss to Host CBS Town Hall With Turning Point USA’s Erika Kirk as Network Signals Big Shift]
