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Federal magistrate judge rules Cole must be jailed until trial, however — siding with prosecutors on the claim that Cole is too dangerous to release. Brian J. Cole Jr. denied placing pipe bombs on Capitol Hill in January 2021 for more than two hours under FBI questioning after his arrest in Virginia on Dec. 4. Cole said he did not recognize the person in a gray hoodie shown on video walking with a backpack on Jan. 5. After two hours of questioning, Cole, 30, told FBI agents that “everything is just blank” and the interview was “a little too much...

Despite the U.S. Justice Department's claim in a new court filing that there is “overwhelming evidence” of a Virginia man’s guilt in the D.C. pipe-bomb case, his location and movements on Jan. 5, 2021, do not appear to be as clear-cut as the FBI’s cellphone evidence implies. When the FBI arrested Brian Jerome Cole Jr. Dec. 4 at his mother’s home in Woodbridge, Va., agents filed a federal court affidavit that relied heavily on pings from Cole’s cell phone. Those pings placed him in a variety of general areas on Capitol Hill the night of Jan. 5. The FBI said...

The Virginia man arrested and charged with placing pipe bombs outside of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol told investigators in a lengthy confession that he wasn't targeting the joint session of Congress that was convening to certify former President Joe Biden's election win, according to a new court filing. In a multiple-hour interview with authorities following his Dec. 4 arrest, Brian Cole allegedly admitted his actions in placing the pipe bombs after initially denying any involvement, prosecutors said.

The man accused of planting two pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee offices on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot gave a “detailed confession” after he was arrested, prosecutors said Sunday. After initially denying involvement, Brian Cole Jr. told investigators after his arrest that he became “bewildered” by claims the 2020 election had been stolen from President Trump and believed someone needed to “speak up” on behalf of people who thought the allegations of election fraud were true, according to a Justice Department memo. Cole explained that “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just...

The DOJ said in a new filing that the suspect was not “openly political” but believed the 2020 election had been tampered with.A Virginia man arrested earlier this month repeatedly cited conspiracy theories about the 2020 election when he confessed to placing pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a Department of Justice filing.The Justice Department had not previously detailed a motive for the attempted attack or any possible connection between the pipe bombs and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. But in a Sunday filing — ahead of his...

A federal security officer linked to a thwarted Jan. 6 pipe bomb attack cleared her name by providing an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed, sources told CBS News. The FBI has now ruled her out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, according to three sources — but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site. How an innocent woman's name came to be publicly linked to the unexploded pipe bombs is a question that has raised concerns among some senior officials in the Trump...

A computer program that compared the bomb suspect’s gait to that of Shauni Kerkhoff produced a 94% match. A forensic analysis of a female former U.S. Capitol Police officer’s gait is a 94%-98% match to the unique stride of the long-sought Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect, according to a Blaze News investigation confirmed by several intelligence sources. A source close to a congressional investigation of Jan. 6 additionally told Blaze News evidence has emerged recently that pointed toward law enforcement possibly being involved in the planting of the pipe bombs. ‘They were f**king in on it.’ A software algorithm that analyzes...

In the span of less than 10 minutes after a huge crowd of protesters filled the U.S. Capitol West Plaza beneath the inauguration stage on Jan. 6, Capitol Police repeatedly used lethal force on the crowd, targeting people in the head, neck, face, and upper body — actions one use-of-force expert called “criminally negligent.” During that brief span, at least 16 people were shot with kinetic-impact projectiles, including nine who took shots to the top of the head, face, and base of the neck, according to Capitol Police surveillance video obtained by Blaze News. The rounds are designed to be...