Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke about the arrest of Brian J. Cole Jr. at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC on Thursday, December 4, 2025. Standing behind Bondi, from left to right, were Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood, FBI Director Kash Patel and the FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Darren Cox. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Federal authorities arrested a Virginia man Thursday morning who the Justice Department said was involved in planting pipe bombs outside the offices of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the eve of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
FBI agents “safely and successfully” took 30-year-old Brian J. Cole Jr. into custody in Woodbridge, Virginia, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at an afternoon news conference at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, DC
According to charging documents, Cole lives in Woodbridge, a remote suburb of Washington.
Bondi declined to comment on a motive.
The arrest marked a breakthrough in the five-year-old case. Bondi claimed on Thursday the issue could have been resolved sooner as “evidence is lying around gathering dust”.
Officials did not specify what piece of evidence or pieces of evidence led them to the suspect, but said the FBI combed through three million lines of data and reviewed 233,000 sales records of black caps that the suspect used on the ends of pipe bombs he made.
“Let me be clear: There was no new lead, there was no new witness, just good, diligent work by the police and prosecutors working as a team with ATF, Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department and of course the FBI,” Bondi said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the operation went “flawlessly” Thursday morning.
“I’m proud to stand here before you and say: We’ve solved this. He will have his day in court,” Patel said.
According to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Cole is charged with transporting explosive devices across state lines and attempting malicious destruction with explosives.
Pirro said identifying the suspect was “like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Bondi said additional charges could apply but declined to provide details. The investigation is “very active and very ongoing” and search warrants will be executed Thursday, she said.
Shopping at Home Depot, Lowe’s
According to the FBI, on January 5, 2021, between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, Cole planted pipe bombs near the offices of the Democratic and Republican National Committees.
Loading documents The documents filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia detail Cole’s purchases of materials to make the pipe bombs from Home Depot and Lowe’s in 2019 and 2020.
According to court documents, investigators also obtained records from cell phone providers showing that Cole’s phone was connected to multiple cell towers near the DNC and RNC on the night of January 5, 2021.
Additionally, investigators say they traced a transaction Cole made at a restaurant near the RNC less than a month before he allegedly planted the bombs.
The authorities had published several Video clips a masked person in a gray hoodie carrying a backpack to transport the pipe bombs. The FBI increased The reward for information leading to an arrest increased from $100,000 to $500,000 in January 2023.
Reports of explosives on January 6th
The bombs didn’t explode. Police received reports of an explosive device near the RNC headquarters at approximately 1 p.m. Eastern Time on January 6, 2021. About 15 minutes later, authorities were alerted to another explosive device near the DNC, according to charging documents.
The national party headquarters are just a five-minute walk from each other and are in close proximity to the US Capitol. At the time, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was at the DNC when the pipe bomb was discovered, according to Politico reported in 2022.
The FBI’s Darren Cox, assistant director in charge of the Washington, DC, field office, said: “Fortunately, these bombs did not explode, although they certainly could have exploded.”
DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement Thursday that the committee was “grateful to the law enforcement officials who spent years investigating the pipe bombs planted at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the eve of the January 6 insurrection.”
“Those responsible for this terrible act must be brought to justice, and political violence should never be accepted in America,” Martin said.
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters issued a statement Thursday blaming former President Joe Biden’s administration for failing to find and arrest the suspect and praising current administration officials “who have prioritized this case and provided long-overdue answers to the American people.”
“For four years, the Biden administration let a terrorist walk the streets while Justice Department leadership was busy targeting parents at school board meetings, Catholics at church, and pushing their DEI agenda instead of taking a potential mass murderer off the streets,” Gruters said.
Bongino roll
Several conspiracy theories about the pipe bomb case have been circulating in right-wing extremist internet forums for years.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who previously accused The FBI covered up the pipe bomb investigation, thanking President Donald Trump and Bondi at Thursday’s press conference for giving him “space” to solve the case.
“I spoke to Ms. Bondi very early on, maybe the second day, and said, ‘We’re going to get this guy.’ She said, “Yes, you are.” And that’s what we did,” said Bongino, who hosted “The Dan Bongino Show” podcast until early 2025.
