The man charged with leaving pipe bombs outside the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington has admitted to planting the explosives in 2021 and said he did so because he was frustrated by the workings of the U.S. political system, federal authorities said in a court filing Sunday.
Brian J. Cole, 30, who was arrested Dec. 4, told investigators that “something just snapped” in him after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” according to the filing, which asks a judge in U.S. District Court in Washington to keep Cole in jail pending his trial. The filing, called a detention memo, says Cole wanted to take action against “the parties” because “they were in charge” of the political system.
An attorney for Cole could not be reached on Sunday. The memo was filed ahead of a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
The pipe bombs were planted Jan. 5, 2021, a day before a riotous mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, forcing a delay in the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 election.
One device was found outside Democratic National Committee headquarters on South Capitol Street SE, the other outside Republican National Committee headquarters, a few blocks away. Both are on Capitol Hill.
The detention memo appears to be the most detailed account so far of the making and placing of the bombs and the motive for doing so. The incident led to a protracted investigation during which conspiracy theories spread widely. Video of an unidentified individual near the scene played repeatedly in the news media.
Cole, of Woodbridge, Virginia, is charged with transporting and planting improvised explosive devices.
In the memo, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington said it already has made an oral motion calling for Cole’s pretrial detention. Sunday’s memo was in support of that motion. It said that after Cole’s arrest, he waived his right to remain silent and gave a detailed statement to authorities.
The memo said neither of the pipe bombs detonated “as intended.” They were discovered about 1 p.m. Jan. 6, the day of the rioting at the Capitol.
The memo describes the purchase of materials at Walmart and Home Depot that were used to make the bombs. A pound of sulfur was bought from Amazon in 2018, the memo says. It says Cole continued to purchase bombmaking materials after the two devices were planted.
After being arrested, Cole was taken to the FBI’s Washington field office, where he was interviewed for hours. At first, prosecutors said, he denied making, transporting or placing the bombs. He said he had come to the District on the night of Jan. 5 to join protests against the outcome of the 2020 election.
But after being shown some of the evidence that had been gathered, the memo says, Cole “walked the agents in detail through his construction, transportation, and planting of the pipe bombs.”
The memo quotes him as saying he was “pretty relieved” when he learned that the bombs did not explode, and added that he placed the devices at night because he did not wish to kill anyone.
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