Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted parties because they were “in charge”

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Brian J. Cole Jr., accused in connection with two pipe bombs found outside the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, told FBI investigators that he targeted U.S. political parties because they were “in charge,” according to a Justice Department memo prosecutors cited in court while seeking to keep him detained.

In filings summarized by the Associated Press, prosecutors said the memo lays out Cole’s statements to investigators after his arrest earlier this month and argues he should remain locked up as the case moves forward. The memo describes it as the most detailed government account of what Cole allegedly told federal agents.

Prosecutors said the bombs were discovered on Jan. 6, the afternoon rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of Trump’s election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Cole, prosecutors said, denied at first that his actions were connected to Congress or the Jan. 6 events, but later acknowledged involvement.

The Justice Department memo said Cole told agents he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen. In the memo’s account, Cole also said he wanted to target the political parties because “they were “in charge,” and prosecutors said he told investigators “I really don’t like either party at this point” when asked why he placed the explosives outside the RNC and DNC headquarters.

Prosecutors said Cole told investigators that “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse.” They said he also described wanting to calm what he viewed as an ongoing crisis, and the memo quoted him as saying that if people felt “something as important as voting in the federal election” was being tampered with, “then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.”

Investigators arrested Cole on Dec. 4 at his Woodbridge, Virginia, home, prosecutors said. After a search of his home and car, prosecutors said officials found shopping bags of bomb-making components, and they described the case as a major breakthrough in a nearly five-year-old investigation.

According to the memo described by prosecutors, Cole initially denied making or placing pipe bombs. When pressed about where he was on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, prosecutors said he initially told investigators he had driven to Washington alone to attend a protest related to the 2020 election, while later acknowledgments, prosecutors said, shifted toward admitting the bombs were his own act.

Prosecutors said Cole acknowledged he traveled to Washington not to protest but to place the explosives, stowing them in a shoebox in the back seat of his Nissan Sentra and placing one pipe bomb outside the RNC and one outside the DNC headquarters, with timers set for 60 minutes. The devices did not detonate, prosecutors said, and they argued that the lack of detonation was due to luck rather than a lack of intent.

In asking a court to keep him detained, prosecutors wrote that Cole’s choice of targets risked the lives of pedestrians and office workers and also law enforcement, first responders and national political leaders inside the party headquarters or driving by them on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors said the risks extended to figures including the vice president-elect and the House speaker.

Cole’s lawyers will have an opportunity to argue their position on detention ahead of a hearing set for Tuesday in Washington’s federal court.