The Virginia man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the eve of the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021 will remain behind bars ahead of his trial, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision was made two days after Brian Cole Jr. appeared in court on Tuesday where his attorneys argued he should be released to home detention because he is not a threat, however, prosecutors disagreed.
“The sudden and abrupt motivation behind Mr. Cole’s alleged actions presents concerns about how quickly the same abrupt and impulsive conduct might recur,” Judge Matthew Sharbaugh wrote in the decision released on Friday. “More, Mr. Cole reportedly told the FBI that he assembled the IEDs ‘in the hours before he drove to Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021.’”
After a years-long investigation, Cole was arrested earlier this month and charged with transporting explosives across state lines and with maliciously attempting to use the bombs to damage or destroy property.
The decision comes following a new Sunday filing revealed that the 30-year-old told investigators that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen, according to federal prosecutors.
Cole has not yet entered a plea and a trial date has not been set.
Cole’s attorneys argued in a Tuesday filing ahead of a hearing in federal court that he should be released, citing his diagnoses of autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), adding that he posed no threat to society.
“Mr. Cole is an African American adult who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1 and with obsessive compulsive disorder,” they wrote.
In court, they argued that Cole had no criminal history, was not on parole or probation, and that he has strong ties to the communities.
“The unique conditions surrounding January 5–6, 2021, are unlikely to recur in a way that would present the same risk profile for Mr. Cole,” his attorneys said.
But prosecutors fought to keep Cole behind bars, pointing to the “hours-long videotaped confession, in which he explained his criminal conduct and intent in detail to investigators.”
“Ultimately, it was luck, not lack of effort, that the defendant failed to detonate one or both of his devices and that no one was killed or maimed due to his actions,” prosecutors contended.
In the decision on Friday, the judge noted that the speed at which Cole was able to allegedly assemble the bombs “suggest he can prepare dangerous explosive devices in short order, over a matter of hours, not necessarily days or weeks.”
“Given the precipitousness with which Mr. Cole reportedly acted, and the speed with which he was able to construct the so-called ‘pipe bombs,’ the Court lacks confidence that even the most rigorous set of release conditions can reasonably guard against the risk of future danger,” the judge added. He also pointed out how Cole allegedly continued to purchase bomb making parts after allegedly planting the bombs.
Details of the interview were released in a new filing on Sunday in which Cole allegedly said that “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” the court filing states. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.
Authorities had not previously outlined a possible motive for the pipe bombs or detailed any connection between the devices and the US Capitol insurrection. But it was previously reported that Cole appeared to tell agents that he believed conspiracy theories that President Donald Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election.
At Cole’s hearing on Tuesday, his attorneys also argued that no one was “actually harmed” as a result of the alleged crimes, since neither of the bombs — previously described as “viable” and “could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders” — did not detonate.
Cole was “not really thinking about how people would react when the bombs detonated, although he hoped there would be news about it,” according to the filing.
“The defendant stated that he had not tested the devices before planting them. He claimed that when he learned that the devices did not detonate, he was ‘pretty relieved,’ and asserted that he placed the devices at night because he did not want to kill people.”
During the hearing, the judge pressed the prosecution for details about the potential damage radius of the devices had they detonated.
“It’s very difficult .. given the number of variables to estimate.. the blast radius,” the prosecution said, according to a CBS reporter inside the courtroom. “But the examiner has opined that these devices had all the necessary components to explode. They were viable pipe bombs.”
In the recorded interview following his arrest, Cole admitted to investigators that he “has never really been an openly political person” and that “no one knows” his political views, including his family, according to Sunday’s filing.
“I didn’t agree with what people were doing, like just telling half the country that they — that their — that they just need to ignore it. I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I went to the protest,” Cole said, according to the filing.
“If people feel that their votes are like just being thrown away, then … at the very least someone should address it.”
But when asked why he targeted the RNC and DNC headquarters, Cole responded, “I really don’t like either party at this point.” He added that he wanted to do something “to the parties” because “they were in charge.”
Cole initially maintained that he did not plant the devices. But after investigators showed him a photo of a Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoe worn by the suspect seen on surveillance footage, he admitted that he “used to have a pair” and said he “threw them away” because “they were old and they were coming apart.”
Federal agents then reminded him that lying to them could result in additional criminal charges. Asked again whether it was him in the video, Cole then paused for approximately 15 seconds, “placed his head face down on the table, and answered, ‘yes,’” according to the filing.
But Cole denied that the planted pipe bombs were directed at Congress or tied to the certification of the electoral college votes at the Capitol, which was the the center of the attack the very next day.
