FBI Arrests Suspect In Case Of Pipe Bombs Planted In D.C. The Night Before Insurrection (Updated x4)

PvtJarHead

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 04, 2025 · 7:29 AM PST

2025/12/04 · 07:29

The FBI tweeted a photo and posted a reward for information leading to the location, arrest and conviction of the person, or persons, responsible for the suspected pipe bombs found in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2020.

UPDATE: Friday, Dec 5, 2025 · 12:54:23 AM +00:00 · PvtJarHead

INSIDENOVA

D.C. pipe bomb suspect Brian Jerome Cole Jr. lived with his mother in a five-bedroom house outside Dale City and worked as a bail bondsman in a family business.

(snip)

Cole's relatives listed in public records did not return calls to the Associated Press Thursday afternoon.

(snip)

According to the affidavit and court records, Cole, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and wears glasses, lived with his mother in the five-bedroom, three-bath house valued at $611,000. He graduated from Hylton High School in 2013 and is listed in the affidavit as employed as a bail bondsman in Northern Virginia.

Cole’s father is president at Free U Bail Bond Inc. in Fairfax, according to his LinkedIn profile.

UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 4, 2025 · 9:27:59 PM +00:00 · PvtJarHead

An Affidavit in support of the Criminal Complaint has been released. Evidence includes component purchase, cellphone location, and Flock camera data...

UPDATE: Prosecutors helped ID Brian Cole Jr. as the suspected pipe bomber by tracing purchases he made in 2019 and 2020 that include all the components of the pipe bombs discovered outside the RNC and DNC. See the full complaint: https://t.co/3kKrV2zqyf
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 4, 2025

Marcy Wheeler has notes...

emptywheel

Certainly, he’s a candidate, and should have been IDed as such in 2021. But the affidavit lacks the kind of thing we saw all the time in real January 6 affidavits: Personal communications. Signs of planning in the period after Trump announced the rally. While there are a bunch of components purchased in November 2020, after the election, there’s not a single data point in the affidavit between when Trump announced the rally on December 19 and when Cole was on Capitol Hill on January 5, 2021.

Surely, FBI has already obtained warrants for all that and it is at least consistent with someone who had been playing with bomb-making for two years before placing these bombs.

But they’re not telling what’s in them.

You get the feeling they might not tell the story Kash Patel and Pam Bondi want to tell.

UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 4, 2025 · 7:00:46 PM +00:00 · PvtJarHead

YouTube Video

UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 4, 2025 · 3:50:09 PM +00:00 · PvtJarHead

The suspect has now been identified...

CNBC

The suspect in custody has been identified as Brian Cole, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News later Thursday morning.

(snip)

A law enforcement official said that police have not yet determined a motive, MS NOW reported.

But the suspect has been linked to statements that show support for an anarchist ideology, two people briefed on the arrest told the news outlet.

The discoveries that led to the arrest did not come from new evidence, but rather from the same trove of material that had mostly been gathered in 2021 and 2022, two sources told MS NOW.

(h/t to markeymark1 in the comments)

New York Post

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the planting of pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, The Post has confirmed.

The suspect, 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Va., was collared Thursday morning and was set to be arraigned in DC federal court at 1 p.m., according to a law enforcement source.

The arrest comes one month before the fifth anniversary of the melee that briefly delayed congressional confirmation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory — and closes an embarrassing chapter for the FBI, which had been castigated by lawmakers for the lack of progress in identifying a perpetrator.

The suspect’s identity is still unknown...

CBS News

Federal authorities made their first arrest Thursday in connection with two pipe bombs that were planted outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The arrest marks a major step forward in a case that has vexed the FBI for nearly five years.

(snip)

But the pipe bomb case had remained a lingering mystery amid the events of that week. The FBI had not made an arrest or identified a suspect before Thursday, though it has periodically released footage of a potential suspect — grainy security camera images of a shadowy figure in a hoodie — and offered $500,000 for information.

Details are sparse...

NBC News

An FBI official says the arrest happened Thursday morning. A news conference will take place at the Justice Department on Thursday to officially announce the arrest.

Federal investigators have said an individual placed one pipe bomb near the Democratic National Committee headquarters and another near the Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol.

The FBI has since repeatedly asked the public for information that could lead to an arrest, including releasing in January additional video of the suspect planting one of the bombs. The bureau has said the suspect is estimated to be about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and was wearing Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a gold logo.

In 2023, the FBI raised the reward for providing information that led to an arrest from $100,000 to $500,000.

Press Conference coming soon...

The New York Times

Federal agents on Thursday arrested a suspect in Virginia on charges of having planted two pipe bombs near the Capitol the night before Jan. 6, 2021, after nearly five years of false leads and frustrated investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The suspect’s identity remained unclear for the moment, but the arrest could ultimately provide an answer to one of the most enduring mysteries arising from Jan. 6.: Who planted the bombs on Capitol Hill outside the national headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic parties on the night before a congressional ceremony certifying that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won the 2020 election?

(snip)

The bureau has redoubled its efforts several times in recent years to find the pipe bomber, circulating various video clips of the suspect wearing a mask, a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers. Agents also obtained a trove of location data from cellphones and digital advertising services, tried to find people who bought devices similar to those used in the making of the bombs and issued subpoenas to 18 vendors that sold the type of sneakers the suspect was wearing.

It’s about fucking time...

RawStory

Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris passed within 20 feet of one of the explosive devices at one point.

Aside from publicly released footage of an unknown figure in a gray hoodie, the mystery of who planted the devices has lingered for several years.

This comes just weeks after congressional investigators revealed new details about the incident previously undisclosed to the public, including that the suspect visited the headquarters of the Congressional Black Caucus the same day.

Better late than never...

Archival Footage Surfaces Of Pete Hegseth Saying Exactly What They're Condemning Mark Kelly For...

PvtJarHead

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 03, 2025 · 9:07 AM PST

2025/12/03 · 09:07

That MAGA are a bunch of hypocrites is proven once again...

CNN

A Fox News contributor who at the time had just left a conservative veterans group, Hegseth was asked to comment about soldiers imprisoned for war crimes. He plainly stated there are costs for illegal actions.

“I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that,” Hegseth said. “That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief. There’s a standard, there’s an ethos. There’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.”

(snip)

In a statement to CNN, Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said Hegseth’s position has been consistent and accused the Democrats of endangering the military with their video.

The remarks in question begin at the 1:00:25 mark...

YouTube Video

Sen Mark Kelly has responded...

Newsweek

"There's a standard, there's an ethos, there's a belief, that we are above […] so many things our enemies or others would do," Hegseth said in the 2016 video. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment via email.

Shown the clip on air on CNN, Kelly said Hegseth was "correct" and it echoed what the Democrats had said. "But when we said it," Kelly added, "he says what we said was false and reckless."

"Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders, you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders," the six Democrats said in the video last month. "No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution."

Here’s the full video of that conversation...

YouTube Video

Republicans suck at keeping their stories straight...

Europe Might Leave America Hanging By Dumping $2.34 Trillion In U.S. Debt If Trump Sells Out Ukraine

PvtJarHead

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday December 01, 2025 · 3:47 PM PST

2025/12/01 · 15:47

Putin and Trump shake hands during a news conference after their meeting to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine

This doesn’t sound good...

Daily Express

European nations are reportedly weighing the "nuclear option" of destabilizing the American economy should Donald Trump abandon Ukraine and compromise continental security. Discussions between American and Ukrainian representatives resumed Sunday in Miami, with both parties working to hammer out a peace agreement.

(snip)

The Wall Street Journal reveals a European intelligence agency has distributed internal evaluations regarding "commercial and economic plans" the Trump administration has been pursuing with Russia in private discussions.

(snip)

Insiders informed the WSJ that European leaders are weighing severe countermeasures in response, calculated to trigger economic turmoil across the United States. The proposed strategy includes liquidating trillions in American government bonds held by European governments.

(snip)

The political fallout could be catastrophic for Trump and the Republicans as the midterm elections loom next year. The EU and the UK, being among the largest holders of US Treasury securities (US debt), wield considerable potential economic leverage.

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