Charging Docs Reveal How FBI Zeroed In On Suspected D.C. Pipe Bomber

Charging documents for the suspected Washington, D.C., pipe bomber were unsealed in court on Thursday as the Justice Department announced the arrest of Brian Cole Jr.

According to an FBI affidavit, Cole is 30 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, works as a bail bondsman, and lives with his mother in Woodbridge, Virginia. The feds say that Cole used credit cards to purchase bomb-making equipment from Virginia stores.

He bought six pipes, 12 black end caps, and electrical wires from numerous different Home Depots between May 2019 and November 2020. He also purchased steel wool, which was packed inside the pipe bombs, from the national chain. Cole purchased five nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center, some using cash, and bought kitchen timers from Walmart, according to the charging documents. He also bought tools like protective gloves and disinfectant wipes on November 24, 2020.

The pipe bomber investigation dragged on for nearly five years, and many Americans doubted that the federal government would ever find the culprit. The FBI offered the public a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who planted bombs at the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that federal investigators closed in on Cole through “internal work” and “not a public tip.”

“You are not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices, and get away. We would track him to the end of the earth. We didn’t have to track him that far, he wound up being in Woodbridge, Virginia,” Bongino said.

Data from Cole’s cell phone provider showed that he was near the RNC and DNC on January 5, 2021, between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. Data from the cell phone company provided in February 2021 contained an error that was corrected two months later, the filing said.

Cole drives a 2017 Nissan Sentra with Virginia plates, and it was captured by a license plate reader on I-395 South near the Capitol at 7:34 p.m. Three weeks before the bombs were placed, on December 14, 2020, Cole bought food from a restaurant in the area.

Attorney General Pam Bondi ripped the Biden administration for failing to solve the case for four years, saying, “The total lack of movement undermined trust in law enforcement.”

“It languished for four years until Kash Patel and Dan Bongino came to the FBI. There was no new tip, no new witness, the information had been sitting at the FBI for four years,” Bondi added.