Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke on the arrest of Brian J. Cole Jr. from Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. Standing behind Bondi, from left to right, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Darren Cox. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested a Virginia man Thursday morning who they say was involved in planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee offices on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, according to the Department of Justice.

FBI agents took Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, into custody “safely and successfully,” in Woodbridge, Virginia, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at an afternoon press conference at DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Cole is a resident of Woodbridge, a distant suburb of Washington, according to charging documents.

Bondi would not comment on a motive.

The arrest marked a breakthrough in the five-year-old case. Bondi claimed Thursday it could have been solved earlier as “evidence has been sitting there collecting dust.”

Officials did not offer details about which piece or pieces of evidence led them to the suspect, but said the FBI scoured 3 million lines of data and sifted through 233,000 sale records of black caps the suspect used on the ends of the pipe bombs he created.

“Let me be clear: There was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work, working as a team along with ATF, Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department, and, of course the FBI,” Bondi said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the operation Thursday morning was “flawless.”

“I’m proud to stand here before you and say, we solved it. He will have his day in court,” Patel said. 

Cole is charged with transporting explosive devices across state lines and attempting malicious destruction by means of explosive materials, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

Pirro said pinpointing the suspect was “like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Bondi said additional charges could be forthcoming but declined to provide details. The investigation is “very active and very ongoing” and search warrants were being executed Thursday, she said. 

Purchases at Home Depot, Lowe’s

According to the FBI, Cole placed pipe bombs near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 5, 2021. 

Charging documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia detail Cole’s purchases in 2019 and 2020 at Home Depot and Lowe’s of materials to produce the pipe bombs.

Investigators also obtained cell phone provider records that revealed Cole’s phone connected to multiple cell towers in the vicinity of the DNC and RNC on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, according to the court filings.

Additionally, investigators say they tracked a transaction Cole made at a restaurant within steps of the RNC less than a month before he allegedly planted the bombs.

Authorities had publicized several video clips of a masked individual in a gray hooded sweatshirt carrying a backpack to transport the pipe bombs. The FBI increased its reward to $500,000 in January 2023, up from $100,000, for information leading to an arrest.

Reports of explosives on Jan. 6

The bombs did not detonate. Police received reports of an explosive device near the RNC headquarters around 1 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 6, 2021. Roughly 15 minutes later, authorities were alerted to another explosive device a few blocks away in the vicinity of the DNC, according to the charging documents.

The national party headquarters are within a five-minute walk of each other and within close proximity to the U.S. Capitol. Then Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the DNC when the pipe bomb was discovered, Politico reported in 2022.

The FBI’s Darren Cox, assistant director in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office, said “Fortunately, these bombs did not explode, although they certainly could have.” 

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement Thursday that the committee is “grateful to the law enforcement officers who have dedicated years to investigating the pipe bombs planted at the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the January 6th insurrection.” 

“Those responsible for this horrific act must be brought to justice, and political violence should never be accepted in America,” Martin said.

RNC Chair Joe Gruters issued a statement Thursday blaming the administration of former President Joe Biden for not finding and arresting the suspect, and credited current administration officials “who prioritized this case and delivered long-overdue answers to the American people.”

“For four years, the Biden administration allowed a terrorist to walk the streets while DOJ leadership was busy targeting parents at school board meetings, Catholics at church, and enforcing their DEI agenda instead of getting a potential mass murderer off the streets,” Gruters said. 

Bongino role

Several conspiracy theories swirled for years on far-right internet spaces about the pipe bomb case.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who previously accused the FBI of covering up the pipe bomb investigation, thanked President Donald Trump and Bondi at the Thursday press conference for giving him “latitude” to solve the case.

“I spoke with Ms. Bondi very early, maybe day two, and I said, ‘We’re going to get this guy.’ She said, ‘Yes, you are.’ And we did,” said Bongino, who until early 2025 hosted the podcast “The Dan Bongino Show.”