The FBI has arrested a Virginia man, Brian Cole Jr., 30, for allegedly planting pipe bombs outside the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee on the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — bringing to a close a nearly five-year manhunt that had frustrated investigators and fueled conspiracy theories.
“We solved it,” FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference, adding that “the American public and the world will learn even more information” when Cole has “his day in court.”
“We are going to make sure accountability is delivered to the fullest extent,” Patel said.
Cole made his first court appearance Friday in Virginia. He has been charged with unlawful transportation of an explosive device in interstate commerce with the intent to kill, injure or intimidate, as well as malicious destruction or attempted malicious destruction. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. A detention hearing is scheduled for December 15.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was “no new tip” and “no new witness” that led to Cole’s arrest, but rather a fresh review of the massive trove of material already collected — which Patel described as “more than 3 million lines of data.”
Neither Patel nor Bondi shared additional details about the investigation or Cole’s potential motives.
NBC News reported that Cole is cooperating with authorities and told the FBI he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. CNN reported that Cole told investigators he believed the 2020 election was stolen.
How the alleged pipe bomb plot unfolded
On the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, homemade explosive devices — described by investigators as viable bombs capable of causing “serious injury or death” — were placed outside both DNC and RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C. They went unnoticed until about 16 hours later, just minutes before supporters of then-President Donald Trump began breaching barricades outside the Capitol in an effort to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
That morning, then–Vice President-elect Kamala Harris passed within roughly 20 feet of the DNC pipe bomb as her motorcade entered the building, according to a later report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Harris remained at DNC headquarters for nearly two hours before the device was discovered, prompting her evacuation and a major law enforcement response.
Surveillance footage captured a suspect, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a mask and Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo. The FBI offered a $500,000 reward for information and issued subpoenas to 18 sneaker vendors. Despite more than 1,000 interviews, a review of more than 39,000 video files and over 600 public tips, investigators for years were unable to determine even the suspect’s gender, much less their identity.
In that vacuum, speculation and extreme theories flourished. Commentators suggested political motives or an “inside job,” and some alleged that authorities were hiding the truth. “There is a massive cover-up, because the person who planted those pipe bombs — they don’t want you to know who it was, because it’s either a connected anti-Trump insider, or this was an inside job,” Dan Bongino, now the deputy FBI director, said in November 2024. “Those bombs were planted there. This was a setup. I have zero doubt.”
After Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, Bongino and Patel elevated the case to one of the bureau’s top priorities. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the New York Times reported Thursday that Cole’s arrest “was not based on new information but came after agents bore down yet again on their investigative files and discovered a new lead.”
“Folks, you’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off into the sunset,” Bongino said Thursday. “We were going to track this person to the end of the earth. There was no way he was getting away.”
One of Trump’s first executive actions in his second term was to grant clemency to nearly 1,600 people accused or convicted of “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” It is not yet clear whether Cole’s legal team will argue that he is covered by that proclamation.
