A Virginia man suspected of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee headquarters the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in a case that has baffled authorities for nearly five years, has been revealed to be a Trump supporter, who believes the 2020 election was "stolen." I wonder who put those hair-brained thoughts in his mind? CNN got into more details about Brian Cole Jr.
"We're getting some more details on the man accused of planting pipe bombs right near the U.S. Capitol on the eve of January 6th. Sources tell CNN the 30-year-old suspect in this case, Brian Cole, Jr., told investigators after his arrest that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing the first indication of a possible motive," CNN's Pamela Brown said.
"Well, Brian Cole, the suspect in this case, Wolf, sat for hours of interviews yesterday with the FBI, and among the statements that he made was that he believed the 2020 election was stolen," senior justice correspondent Evan Perez said. "Now, that is a significant piece of information simply because there's been so much conspiracy. There's been a lot of speculation as to exactly what the motivation could be, certainly, because if you remember, those bombs were planted on January 5th of 2021, the day before the Capitol riot."
"They were discovered that afternoon of January 6th, 2021, just as the mob of MAGA supporters was breaking through the first cordon of police of police lines," he continued. "And then, of course, ransacking the Capitol. So the FBI investigators, for a long time, were trying to figure out whether the two things were connected. Now this there's certainly a lot more to learn about what his motivation was and whether this really explains everything. But certainly, that statement that he provided to investigators in the last 24 hours is the beginning of the story here."
"Now, we know that the FBI did a lot of work over the last five years," he said. "You heard from the attorney general and the deputy FBI director in the previous 24 hours, describing certainly a lot of the investigative work that is still to be done. But one of the key things that happened here was figuring out the cell phone location for this suspect that matched some of the other evidence that only happened, Wolf, in the last few weeks, I'm told, as part of this investigation. And that is really remarkable when you think about an investigation that has cost millions of dollars, that has included dozens, perhaps even more than 100 agents that have been working on this case since this happened back in 2021."
"And as you know, the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, is now distancing himself from various conspiracy theories," Wolf Blitzer said. "He actually helped push about this case when he was a podcaster. What's he saying?"
"Well, when he was a podcaster, that was just 11 months ago, that he was on his podcast" Perez said. "And one of the things he said was that he believed the FBI had not revealed who the bomber was because it was an inside job. Do we have a clip of that to play."
The clip displays Sean Hannity telling Bongino, "You put a post on X right after this happened, and you said there's a massive cover-up because the person that planted those pipe bombs, they don't want you to know who it is because it's either a connected anti-Trump insider or an inside job. "
"I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions," Bongino says in the clip. "That's clear. And one day I'll be back in that space. But that's not what I'm paid for now. I'm paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts."
"And look, you know, I was at that press conference yesterday, and I raised my hand repeatedly," Perez said after the clip. "I did not get called on, but that is actually what Hannity asked the question that I wanted to ask, which was essentially, do you still believe that this was an inside job, because, you know, the deputy FBI director, since he arrived at the FBI, has been very fixated on this case."
"He has been pushing people to try to solve it," he added. "And so the solution appears to be that they've now made an arrest. They've resolved the case, according to the FBI. And some of the answers that we're getting now as part of the interviews appear to show, not the narrative, that the FBI and the former FBI, I'm sorry, the deputy FBI director was pushing for so long."
NBC News reports:
Brian Cole Jr., 30, is cooperating with the FBI, NBC News has reported, citing a separate person familiar with the matter. Cole is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday. He was charged Thursday with leaving pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee in the hours before Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Cole was charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials, according to charging documents. The FBI has not publicly cited a motive.
The pipe bombs he's accused of planting were found the day of the Jan. 6 riot, though investigators have said they were place near the RNC and DNC on Jan. 5.
Trump received about 74 million votes nationally in 2020, while Joe Biden received roughly 81 million.
Trump's claims about the 2020 election were part of former Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into his efforts to overturn the results. In his final report on the investigation, Smith said that Trump "inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence" by spreading "demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false" claims about the 2020 election. Trump has publicly maintained that he believed he won the election.
And that worked. Another man pardoned by Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol returned to Washington in recent days and has been wandering the neighborhood of Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin. Police and prosecutors are alarmed, urging the judge, a Trump appointee who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1997 to 1998, to jail him immediately. Politico reports, "U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who convicted Taylor Taranto at a bench trial this year for a threat to federal buildings and for bringing weapons to President Barack Obama’s D.C. neighborhood, did not immediately order him back to prison, but said he would weigh the request over the next few weeks."
I'm starting to see a pattern here. I feel like Dan is about to cry again.
