The attorneys for Brian J. Cole Jr. argue that President Donald Trump’s broad clemency for those who stormed the U.S. Capitol should also cover their client, who is charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
In a Monday court filing, Cole’s lawyers claim that Trump’s blanket pardons extend to the charges against him because his alleged actions on Jan. 5, 2021, are “inextricably tethered” to the events at the Capitol the following day. They are asking U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to dismiss the case before it goes to trial.
The Justice Department has not yet responded in writing to the defense request. Prosecutors previously stated that Cole denied any connection between his conduct and the Jan. 6 Capitol events during FBI questioning.
Last January, on his first day back in office, Trump pardoned, commuted sentences, or ordered the dismissal of all charges against more than 1,500 people accused of participating in the Capitol attack.
Nearly a year later, Cole was arrested on charges that he placed two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night before the riot. The devices didn’t detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.
Cole’s attorneys said the Justice Department’s own framing of the case has explicitly linked Cole’s alleged conduct on Jan. 5 to the events of Jan. 6, when rioters disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump.
“That is not happenstance sequencing in time. It is the government’s theory of Mr. Cole’s alleged motive and context,” defense lawyers wrote. “According to the government, the timing was chosen because of what was scheduled to occur at the Capitol on January 6.”
They also argued that prosecutors’ theory of a possible motive places Cole’s alleged conduct “in the same political controversy that animated the January 6 crowd.”
In court filings, prosecutors have said that Cole confessed to investigators after his Dec. 4 arrest. He told FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” prosecutors said.
Cole has remained jailed since his arrest. His attorneys have appealed Ali’s refusal to order Cole’s pretrial release from custody. The judge hasn’t set a trial date yet.
Cole, 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, has been diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His attorneys say he has no criminal record.
Authorities said they used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect in a crime that confounded the FBI for over four years.
