The suspect arrested on Thursday morning for allegedly planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee offices on the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot likely had "anarchist leanings," federal law enforcement sources said, who have now launched an investigation into it.
The suspect has been identified as Brian Cole Jr., 30, from Woodbridge, Va. Cole was expected to appear in federal court in Washington, DC, at 1 p.m. Authorities have not yet revealed what charges he may be facing. Investigators also haven't determined a motive, but sources said that they are looking into his background to see if he might have had any "anarchist leanings."
Attack Plans of an Anarchist
Neighbors in the quiet suburban cul-de-sac described the suspect as a young man who kept to himself and doted on a pet Chihuahua. "He's very antisocial. Very," one longtime resident told The New York Post. "He keeps to himself."
"He has a dog that he loves," she added. "He walks every day, twice a day, to 7-Eleven with his dog and he wears his headphones."
"He seemed very quiet. He would never make eye contact. Almost like he just didn't see you," added another neighbor, a man who said that Cole would "wear shorts all winter long, and red Crocs."
"I'm pretty shocked," said the second neighbor, who lived in the area for seven years. "This is a very uncommonly friendly and neighborly place to live."
Cole is a resident of Woodbridge. Cole's arrest is the first big breakthrough in the five-year investigation — a case that had long stumped authorities and fueled a flurry of conspiracy theories.
Cole's arrest comes just a month before the fifth anniversary of the chaos that temporarily halted Congress from certifying former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 election win — and it brings an end to a frustrating chapter for the FBI, which had faced tremendous backlash from lawmakers for failing to make progress for so long.
Surveillance video captured a figure with a backpack, dressed in a gray hoodie, mask, gloves, glasses, and Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers, placing what investigators described as "viable explosive devices" outside the headquarters of both major political parties on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.
The bombs were found the next afternoon — around 17 hours after they were planted — just as Congress was meeting to certify the 2020 electoral votes. That session was thrown into chaos and halted for several hours when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee.
Both then–Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) came "within feet" of the explosives as they moved to and from the DNC headquarters on South Capitol Street that day.
Precious Lives Narrowly Escaped Terror
Pelosi's motorcade even drove right past one of the devices after it had already been discovered, highlighting what the report called a major security lapse by law enforcement, according to a congressional report.
The report — released in January of this year by Reps. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — concluded that "little meaningful progress" had been made in the pipe bomb case and accused federal officials of refusing to give Congress any real updates.
According to the lawmakers, investigators had "a promising array of data" and "numerous persons of interest," but the FBI still shifted its resources away from the case by the end of February 2021.
On the same day the report came out, investigators also shared new details with the public, including surveillance video of the suspect planting one of the bombs and an estimate that the individual was about 5 feet 7 inches tall.
With no major leads — and not even confirmation about whether the suspect was male or female — the case became fertile ground for speculation, especially among conservatives and some Republican lawmakers.
Many suggested the attempted bombing might have been carried out by a far-left extremist, arguing that such a revelation would be politically awkward for the Biden administration as its Justice Department continued prosecuting hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants.
At one point, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino even claimed on his popular podcast that the bombing was an "inside job" and part of a "massive cover-up," comments he made before later joining the bureau.
