Imagine waking up to news that a ghost from nearly five years ago has finally been caught, admitting to planting bombs in the heart of Washington, D.C., on the eve of chaos.
The New York Post reported that Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, has been charged with placing viable pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters on January 5, 2021, just before the Capitol riot, and was arrested on Thursday, after confessing to the crime.
Let’s rewind to that tense night in early 2021 when Cole allegedly set down two dangerous explosives near the nerve centers of both major political parties.
These devices, fully capable of destruction, sat undiscovered for 17 hours until they were found on January 6, 2021, just as supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol, delaying the certification of the 2020 election results.
Fast forward to this week, when federal investigators, after years of dead ends, finally nabbed Cole following a meticulous re-examination of the case.
It’s almost poetic justice that it took a fresh set of eyes to solve a crime that haunted D.C. for so long, especially under new FBI leadership determined to cut through bureaucratic fog.
“This is what it’s like when you work for a president who tells you to go get the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement,” said FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at a press conference on Thursday.
Well, credit where it’s due—Bongino’s team did what others couldn’t in four years, though one wonders if the previous focus on political theater over hard evidence slowed things down.
“Our team re-examined the case from the ground up after the previous leadership spent four years with no success,” said FBI Director Kash Patel to The Post on Thursday.
Cole, after his arrest on Thursday morning, December 4, 2025, confessed that afternoon, admitting to the chilling act, though his motives remain murky due to inconsistent statements during a lengthy four-hour interview.
He told investigators he bought into claims that the 2020 election was stolen, yet a national Republican operative noted there’s “zero indication” Cole was a committed supporter of the former president.
Interestingly, Cole wasn’t registered with either party in Virginia and skipped primaries, though he did vote in general elections in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024, painting a picture of a politically ambiguous figure.
On Friday, Cole made his initial appearance in D.C. federal court before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya, where he did not enter a plea.
He faces serious charges, including transporting explosives across state lines with harmful intent and attempted malicious destruction using explosive materials, and was ordered held pending a detention hearing on December 15, 2025.
