Road to finding J6 pipe bomb suspect paved with fresh FBI eyes and thorough police work

Five years after police discovered pipe bombs outside both major party headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI – reinvigorated by a new investigative team and leadership – finally arrested a suspect connected to the investigation.

The arrest came after FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino led a new look into the mountains of evidence collected by the bureau and its law enforcement partners since the incident that included hundreds of hours of video footage, cell phone and credit card data. 

“Today’s arrests happened because the Trump administration made it a priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday at a press conference announcing the charges. “The cold case languished for four years, until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino came to the FBI.” 

FBI and Justice Department officials stressed that the bureau obtained no new evidence or tips, but that a fresh look at the case files and data led to the breakthrough. ​

“We didn't come up with new evidence. We didn't get a tip. This case is five years old. We simply—and Deputy Director Bongino spearheaded this effort—went back and said, this is an individual who tried to bomb the United States Capitol, RNC, DNC, innocent civilians and elected legislatures, the epistemic epicenter of our constitutional government,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “It's on video. Why can't we find this man?” 

The newly filed criminal complaint against the suspect, Brian Cole Jr., shows the FBI carefully analyzed the credit card purchases and bank records to isolate the components allegedly used to manufacture the two bombs, which were allegedly placed outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National committees on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, the night before the Capitol riot. All these records, officials said, were already in the possession of the FBI leading up to the break in the case. 

The FBI relied on a bank checking account and six different credit cards associated with the suspect to break the case after it remained fallow for years. Notably, Cole appears to have compiled some of the materials the FBI alleges he used to construct the bombs long before the 2020 presidential election, the results of which garnered challenges that preceded the riot. 

The bureau traced purchases of components that matched those used in the two bombs to stores across northern Virginia during both 2019 and 2020 ahead of Jan. 6. Notably, the FBI also reported that Cole allegedly continued to purchase bomb-making materials after Jan. 6, 2021, adding fresh mystery to the case and the suspect’s motivations.   

You can read the criminal complaint below: 

Ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who led the congressional police department on Jan. 6, told the John Solomon Reports podcast that federal investigators should use the arrest as an opportunity to step back and take a look at all the details of the lead up to and events of Jan. 6 as a whole. 

“I think just anytime you think an investigation is going to go cold, it's always good to step back, you know, either clear your mind and come back to there or like, like in this case, put some fresh eyes on it and look at it,” he said. 

“And then you can begin to look at, okay, let's, let's go back and begin to look at why there [were] the issues with the intelligence. I've said all along, intelligence for January 6 was, was treated absolutely differently than any other major [event] that I've handled in Washington, D.C.,” Sund continued. 

He has previously said that intelligence warnings ahead of Jan. 6 about potential violence that day were kept from him as the head of the Capitol Police Department. He alleged this was done for political reasons – and a concern about optics –from House leadership under then-Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

Just the News previously reported that FBI informants had alerted the bureau prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot that there was the strong possibility of “armed” conflict at the U.S. Capitol building, but that intelligence was not disbursed aggressively enough to force a change in security that fateful day. 

Sund says the arrest raises new questions for law enforcement that will hopefully be answered by further investigation, including potential motives, possible connections with outside groups, or if he had received any funding. 

“What links does this individual have to anybody else who's in his network, who's supporting him? Is he tied to, you know, any political movement, any political people, is he tied to anybody you know on the hill? Is he tied to anybody? That, I think, is probably one of the big questions people want to know," Sund said. "Is he being funded? Was he being indoctrinated by anybody you know? I think the link of his network is going to be a very important next step in finding out, you know, some answers."

So far, the FBI and Justice Department officials have declined to provide any further information about motive, citing the delicate nature of the ongoing investigation and pending court proceedings. Patel said at the press conference Thursday that the federal prosecutors will unveil more evidence as the case progresses. 

The criminal complaint indicates that Cole works in the office of a bail bondsman in Virginia. According to media reports and court documents, the suspect's father, Brian Cole Sr., also works in the industry in Tennessee. Cole Sr.'s bail bonds company worked to "free illegal immigrants from ICE facilities," per the Daily Wire. Cole Sr. also enlisted the help of high-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump when he accused a local prosecutor of discrimination and racism and asked the Biden Justice Department to investigate. 

In May, shortly after Patel took the helm at the Trump FBI, Bongino announced a review into several high-profile cases that had gone cold to “either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention.” That review included the Jan. 6 pipe bomb case, which had remained unsolved during all four years of the Biden administration.   

Just last month, Patel hinted that the new strategy had borne fruit. In an interview with independent journalist Catherine Herridge at the end of November, he confirmed the FBI had made "significant breakthroughs” in the case. At the time, though, he declined to provide any further information about whether charges against any suspects were forthcoming. 

In the intervening years, the FBI repeatedly advertised a $500,000 reward for information on identifying the suspect, who had been captured on thousands of hours of security camera footage. But, the investigation turned up nothing. 

The lack of answers drew criticism from Congress, which pilloried the FBI in a January report, first for allowing the security failures surrounding the pipe bombs and secondly for the “chaotic response of federal law enforcement after their discovery,” Just the News previously reported. The lawmakers also criticized the bureau for failing to provide “substantive updates” about the status of the investigation into how the bombs were planted at the major party headquarters undetected. 

“Nearly four years later, federal law enforcement has yet to identify the individual responsible for planting the pipe bombs, which remains one of the unanswered questions from that day,” subcommittees led by GOP Chairmen Barry Loudermilk and Thomas Massie concluded in that January report. 

The report specifically criticized federal law enforcement for failing to initially discover the bombs, then improperly securing the scene, putting others in danger, including high-ranking public officials. 

Just the News reported that footage released by Loudermilk’s subcommittee showed the Secret Service brought the-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris into a garage at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, just a few yards from where a pipe bomb had been planted, likely endangering her life.