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.”

The arrest and trial of a retired librarian for expressing his views should chill us all. | Photo by Jim Brownlow

We know the slogan “Remember January 6th” but have we forgotten the gut punch it was that day to watch people assault barricades and rappel the walls of our Capitol, break windows and pour into our Capitol’s chambers? Remember watching representatives and senators in their suits, crawling behind those rows of gallery seats? We were stunned by the violence and havoc we were witnessing. 

Jim Brownlow remembers and on Jan. 6 of this year, at 7:15 in the morning, he wrote with red, white and blue chalk on the sidewalk in front of the Muskego Post Office, “Remember January 6th every November.” When you vote, he is saying, remember the violent mayhem you witnessed with your own eyes. 

Two weeks later, two police officers came to Brownlow’s door because the property manager of the post office building complained that someone had “vandalized” the sidewalk and he had to hire a cleaning service to clean it up. When the officers asked Brownlow if he had chalked the sidewalk, he answered only that he had “exercised his constitutionally protected free speech.” He also suggested that chalk can be washed off with soapy water and a broom. The officers left. 

Two weeks later a different officer called to ask Brownlow to come to the police station to answer  more questions in order to complete a report. Brownlow said no, he was busy. The officer said OK, he’d call the next week. On Feb. 4 a new officer called and Brownlow replied he’d already said all he had to say to the first officer.

Within an hour three police officers in two squad cars showed up at his house. Brownlow and his wife invited them in because it was cold outside and normal people in Wisconsin are hospitable. One of the officers said Brownlow was charged with “Criminal Damage to Property Under $1,000” so he was now under arrest and had to go to the station to be processed. (Miranda was not mentioned.) Brownlow said he wouldn’t go without an attorney although, also, he wouldn’t resist because he’s 76 years old and he didn’t want to break anything.

The officers emptied his pockets, patted him down, double handcuffed him, escorted him out his front door to the waiting squad. They drove him to the police station where he was handcuffed to a bench and questioned. His mug shot was taken and he was fingerprinted. They then handed him a summons to appear in municipal court on March 12. 

On March 12 Brownlow said he would not plead guilty and pay a $900 fine (!) so he was given a trial date in August. He tried to enter a plea to dismiss but was told one can’t do that until the trial date.

Six months later, before Brownlow could submit his motion to dismiss, the Muskego prosecutor told the judge the criminal damage charge was dropped because it couldn’t be proven in court. Then, immediately and before Brownlow could figure out what was happening, they turned around and charged him with disorderly conduct. Same moment, same courtroom, same incident, same judge and prosecutor. At that point he was given a new court date of Nov. 7..

And here we are.

Who is Jim Brownlow? He’s us. A quiet guy retired from his career as a middle school librarian. Married to his wife who was a sixth grade teacher when they met. Together they raised their family and were active in their community. Brownlow ran and lost as the Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly four times from 2010-2016. (Wisconsin’s gerrymandering made it impossible for  Democrats to win in their area.) Brownlow is the kind of person who doesn’t dazzle but whenever you turn around he’s there, caring, helping, championing the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. 

An assault on our constitutional rights

What are the issues here? The petty harassment of one guy in a small town or an assault on our  constitutional right to free speech? 

Brownlow says it’s the second. 

This is our First Amendment, adopted in 1791. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

So when we are told the First Amendment is under assault, here it is. Brownlow has done research (I told you he was a librarian). This is what he has learned: 

The Muskego Municipal Code charge of disorderly conduct, adopted from Wisconsin Statute 947.01(1) says it’s unlawful to “engage in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud conduct or in any other disorderly conduct under circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance.”

Wisconsin courts have repeatedly emphasized that:

1. The statute must be applied narrowly to conduct that actually tends to cause or provoke a disturbance. Brownlow replies: Sidewalk chalking is inherently nonviolent, non-abusive and non-threatening. It does not fall into any of the categories listed in the statute.
2. Disorderly conduct cannot be stretched to cover innocuous or constitutionally protected activity. Brownlow replies: Drawing with washable chalk is a common childhood and expressive activity that does not reasonably cause alarm, fear or disruption.
3. The statute requires conduct that is, in context, of a nature to cause real disturbance or disruption. Brownlow replies: Chalking on a sidewalk, where it does not obstruct or endanger others, is expressive conduct entitled to constitutional protection.
4. Peaceful expressive activity is not disorderly conduct. Brownlow replies: Extending ‘disorderly conduct’ to cover chalk risks renders the statute unconstitutionally overbroad, as it would criminalize ordinary, harmless activities.

Brownlow’s conclusion: Because chalking is nonviolent, harmless, and not of a nature to provoke disturbance, it cannot constitute disorderly and the citation must therefore be dismissed.

Brownlow is a thoughtful person. “The people carrying out these charges against me are ordinary Americans who do not see this as what it truly is – an assault on America’s constitutional freedom of expression. There was no damage here. I wrote on my sidewalk at home using the same chalk and it washed off in a minute with a hose and broom.” 

“We need to be vigilant and say what’s on our mind peacefully but with determination.” 

Hordes of menacing people, many with weapons, stormed our Capitol and yet are now living free lives. Jim Brownlow chalked a thoughtful reminder on a public sidewalk and is, eight months later, still facing a threatening charge. There are wildly and dangerously different standards for freedom of speech here. 

On Nov. 7 Jim Brownlow goes to court. I will let you know what happens. 

In the meantime,  if you have chalk and a sidewalk, maybe it’s time to exercise YOUR constitutional right to free speech.