The Justice Department finally arrested a suspect in the Jan. 6 pipe bombing case, potentially resolving a five-year mystery of who targeted both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions with improvised explosive devices right around the time a pro-Trump mob was storming the Capitol to try to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Brian Cole Jr. of Virginia has reportedly already confessed in what is shaping up to be a slam-dunk case.
But President Donald Trump’s U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. may yet well blow the whole thing with her antics, national security analyst Marcy Wheeler wrote on X Friday.
Wheeler, who runs the “Empty Wheel” blog, responded to an update by Lawfare editor Roger Parloff, who wrote that U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh “rule[d] that accused pipebomber Cole must be detained. Oddly, he still hasn’t ruled on whether to accept Cole’s superior court indictment. I don’t see how he can detain him unless he accepts that indictment.”
“I think this is going to be appealed where Cole will force his probable cause hearing,” wrote Wheeler. “I should say: I do think it likely he did it. I also think DOJ played procedural games bc Jeanine Pirro was too busy partying to do things right.”
Pirro, a former judge and prosecutor in New York who spent years as a right-wing firebrand commentator on Fox News before being appointed by Trump to replace his scandal-plagued first choice for top prosecutor in D.C., has run into a number of problems with other cases she has tried to prosecute since taking office.
Among other things, Pirro had to downgrade initial overly zealous felony charges she brought against a protester and Air Force veteran who threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer — only to then lose the case when trying it as a misdemeanor. Some experts have even accused Pirro of knowingly bringing unwinnable cases to just make a statement against people who haven’t broken the law, a serious violation of prosecutorial ethics.
The post ‘Too busy partying’: Analyst rips Jeanine Pirro for playing ‘games’ with DC pipe bomb case appeared first on Raw Story.
