Update December 5, 2025, 3:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional reporting about the investigation and arrest.
Just shy of five years since two pipe bombs were planted outside the Republican Nation Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., a suspect is in custody.
Reports leaked Thursday morning that the FBI had arrested Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, for allegedly planting the explosives just blocks from the U.S. Capitol on January 5, 2021.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Cole was in custody. He has been with one count of interstate transportation of an explosive with intent to kill, injure or damage a building, in addition to maliciously attempting to damage or destroy by explosion and is due in court Friday afternoon.
The Arrest
According to the attorney general, the “cold case languished for four years” under the Biden administration until FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino took over the bureau.
Bondi, Patel, and Bongino all emphasized that the arrest was not the result of a new tip or witness, but rather “good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work” that also involved U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
Pirro called the arrest “a huge win” at the Thursday presser because “it was like finding a needle in a haystack.” She said the FBI sifted through millions of pieces of data, like the sale of 233,000 blacks caps that matched the ones found on the explosive devices, in addition to wires, steel, and nine-volt batteries. Patel later put the number at “three million lines of information,” including cell phone data.
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, a seven-page affidavit filed by the FBI in federal court further outlines the meticulous and exhaustive investigation that led to Cole’s arrest. According to investigators, both devices were built from similar component parts, including a 1 inch by 8 inch pipe with end caps, 14 gauge electrical wire in red and black, alligator clips connecting the wires, a 9-volt battery and connector, a white kitchen timer, steel wool, paper clips, and homemade black powder.
At the Thursday presser, the FBI revealed then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the DNC offices when the pipe bomb was discovered, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also passed by before it was found and removed. “These bombs did not explode, but they certainly could have,” Darren Cox, the Assistant Director in Charge at the FBI Washington Field Office, said. “Make no mistake, the alleged pipe bomber did terrorize our community.”
FBI officials obtained credit and banking records belonging to the suspect that showed purchases corresponding to the items used in the devices from October 2019 through December 2020. He purchased galvanized pipes the same size as the ones planted in D.C. in June and November of 2020. End caps matching the ones on the device were purchased from Home Depot on multiple occasions. Cole bought five 9-volt battery connectors near the end of 2019, and two white kitchen timers in June 2020.
The affidavit also detailed cell phone tower records that placed Cole’s phone in the areas around the RNC and DNC on January 5, 2021 (the night the bombs were placed). His phone pinged cell towers in the area approximately seven times during the period the devices were planted.
The suspect’s height is listed as 5 feet, 6 inches. Analysis of the suspect in widely circulated security video earlier estimated a height of 5 feet 7 inches, plus or minus an inch. Officials executed search warrants on Cole’s home in Virginia, where he lives with his mother and other family members.
The Suspect
Cole graduated from high school in 2013 and did not attend college. A neighbor described him to The New York Post as someone who is “very anti-social” and “keeps to himself.” Another told the outlet that “he seemed very quiet” and “would never make eye contact, almost like he just didn’t see you.”
Cole reportedly worked for a bail bonds company run by his father. The company, according to The Daily Wire, worked to free illegal immigrants from ICE facilities. The company reportedly sued the first Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security over its immigration policies, complaining that illegals for whom they posted bond, who then jumped bail out of fear they would be deported by Trump, were costing the company money. The U.S. Court of Appeals tossed the case just weeks before Cole allegedly planted the bombs in D.C.
The Daily Wire also reported that, in another case, Cole’s father hired the same attorney that represented Trayvon Martin’s family, Benjamin Crump, in an effort to go after a Tennessee prosecutor who had concerns about the bail company’s ethics after it had been suspended from operating in a nearby district. Cole Sr. accused the Rutherford County assistant district attorney of racial persecution. In April 2024, a state appeals court rejected Cole’s allegations, finding repeated misconduct by the company warranted those sanctions.
There have been reports that Cole may have had ties to Antifa or anarchist groups, but Just the News’ John Solomon told Megyn on Friday that his sources have told him to “hold off” on such reporting. “I don’t think, as of 11 this morning when I did my last round of reporting, that they have an assessment of any proof about ideological affiliations,” he said. “They’ve warned me that they they’re going to do weeks of more investigation, and there’s going to be layers to this suspect added to his profile that we don’t have yet.”
Cole Cooperating
During his appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show on Friday, Patel confirmed reports that Cole has been cooperating with authorities since his arrest. “Yes… it’s a little difficult to talk about because the suspect is now in the court proceedings,” he said. “But as you would suspect or expect from the FBI, we do engage with all suspects that are arrested, see if they’re willing to speak to us, and those matters are ongoing.”
After the interview with Patel finished taping, news broke that Cole had confessed to planting the bombs and also told FBI investigators he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Solomon said he confirmed that reporting with FBI officials.
“I just confirmed with FBI officials that he made such an utterance, that he, at one point, said that he thought the election was stolen, that he has been making statements implicating him in the pipe bombing,” he explained. “But it’s early in the investigation, and I caution everybody that these cases are complicated.”
“Everybody wants it to be a clean right, left thing. It’s going to take a while to figure a guy out like this and make sure they understand his motive,” Solomon added. “So, early utterances aren’t always the final outcome of where you find the case ends, but it is true he made those statements. He has made a lot of statements. Some of them are contradictory. I think the FBI is going to weigh all that before they come to a true analysis of what this guy’s motive was.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,207 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.