Nearly five years after pipe bombs were planted near the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national conventions in Washington, D.C., the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, authorities have arrested a suspect in the case.
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Brian Cole Jr. of Virginia was arrested Thursday and charged with use of an explosive device, marking the culmination of a years-long—and still ongoing—investigation, federal officials announced at a press briefing.
“This is ongoing. It’s very active. Search warrants are still being executed. Many charges potentially to come,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the briefing Thursday afternoon. She added that no new tip or witnesses led to the arrest and charges, “just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work” that took months of sifting through evidence.
Officials said that Cole was residing in Northern Virginia, just miles from the capital.
A motive has not yet been identified. But two people familiar with the matter described Cole’s political beliefs as extremist to the Washington Post. And MS Now reported, also citing two people briefed on the matter, that the suspect has been tied to statements supporting anarchist ideology.
Cole, 30, is from suburban Woodbridge, Virginia, where he lives with his parents and works for a bail bond company, Reuters reported. He graduated from Hylton High School in 2013, Prince William County Public Schools spokesperson Diana Gulotta confirmed to multiple outlets.
Cole does not have a criminal history, but has received several traffic violations in the years since the pipe bombs were placed, according to USA Today.
Pamela Smith, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said that investigators sifted through thousands of hours of CCTV footage from around the DNC and RNC headquarters and followed up on thousands of leads.
The FBI offered a substantial monetary reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, which it increased from $100,000 to $500,000 in 2023.
The pipe bombs were discovered roughly 15 hours after they were placed, which officials said gave Cole time to get away from the area. The devices were disabled quickly after they were discovered, but the FBI has said before that point they were viable and could have potentially injured or killed people in the vicinity.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris was in the DNC offices at the time a pipe bomb was discovered nearby, at which point she was evacuated from the premises by her Secret Service detail.
“What I will say today is that Washingtonians can rest easier today, knowing that the suspect responsible for this act is now in custody,” Smith said on Thursday.
“You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset, “ FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said. “Not going to happen. We were going to track this person to the end of the earth. There was no way he was getting away.”
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