After nearly five years, the FBI arrested a Virginia man on Thursday on suspicion of planting two pipe bombs on January 6, 2021.
Cole traveled to D.C. on the evening of January 5, the affidavit said. A license plate reader captured Cole’s car exiting the freeway for the Capitol Hill area at 7:10 p.m., agents said, before cell phone towers that serve the area near the two parties’ headquarters picked up his phone between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. that night.
We don’t know much about Cole’s ideological background. Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to answer a question at a press conference on Thursday about Cole’s potential motive, and whether it was political. Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and former podcaster-turned-FBI co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino all showed off their long-honed rhetorical skills in finding ways to describe the significance of the bombs without going into why the day happened: the current President egged on a mob to attack the Capitol in a last-ditch effort stay in power after having lost the 2020 election.
“What I will say is this is why this was so incredibly important, more than any other case, is that this is in our nation’s capital where this happened,” Bondi explained at one point.
Neither of the two pipe bombs on January 6 exploded, though their placement certainly drew attention: one was at the DNC, and the other at the RNC. Law enforcement responding to the storming of the Capitol that day were diverted as the bombs were discovered.
Cole traveled to D.C. on the evening of January 5, the affidavit said. A license plate reader captured Cole’s car exiting the freeway for the Capitol Hill area at 7:10 p.m., agents said, before cell phone towers that serve the area near the two parties’ headquarters picked up his phone between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. that night.
We don’t know much about Cole’s ideological background. Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to answer a question at a press conference on Thursday about Cole’s potential motive, and whether it was political. Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and former podcaster-turned-FBI co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino all showed off their long-honed rhetorical skills in finding ways to describe the significance of the bombs without going into why the day happened: the current President egged on a mob to attack the Capitol in a last-ditch effort stay in power after having lost the 2020 election.
“What I will say is this is why this was so incredibly important, more than any other case, is that this is in our nation’s capital where this happened,” Bondi explained at one point.
Cole bought several components used the pipe bombs, an FBI agent said in an affidavit filed in the case. Those allegedly include electronics, wires, pipes, and other parts of the bombs. The agent, who wasn’t named in the document, described the explosive component as being “homemade black powder.”
Neither of the two pipe bombs on January 6 exploded, though their placement certainly drew attention: one was at the DNC, and the other at the RNC. Law enforcement responding to the storming of the Capitol that day were diverted as the bombs were discovered.
Cole traveled to D.C. on the evening of January 5, the affidavit said. A license plate reader captured Cole’s car exiting the freeway for the Capitol Hill area at 7:10 p.m., agents said, before cell phone towers that serve the area near the two parties’ headquarters picked up his phone between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. that night.
We don’t know much about Cole’s ideological background. Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to answer a question at a press conference on Thursday about Cole’s potential motive, and whether it was political. Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and former podcaster-turned-FBI co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino all showed off their long-honed rhetorical skills in finding ways to describe the significance of the bombs without going into why the day happened: the current President egged on a mob to attack the Capitol in a last-ditch effort stay in power after having lost the 2020 election.
“What I will say is this is why this was so incredibly important, more than any other case, is that this is in our nation’s capital where this happened,” Bondi explained at one point.
