Suspect arrested in Jan. 6 pipe bombing attempt on both parties' HQs

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Dec 4, 2025

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A suspect has been arrested and charged with planting twin pipe bombs outside the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the two major parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, officials said Thursday.

The arrest marks a stunning breakthrough in the puzzling, long-unsolved case that occurred alongside the violent riot by thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters.

The suspect was identified as Brian Cole, NBC News first reported, citing two senior law enforcement officials. The arrest took place in suburban Woodbridge Virginia, about 20 miles from the crime scenes.

The bust took place Thursday morning and the suspect is a man, said a government official familiar with the bust. No other details were immediately available, like a potential motive or possible charges.

The pipe bombs were planted on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington D.C., surveillance footage showed.

Nobody was hurt and the bombs were safely defused by authorities, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal.

In the nearly five years since the attempted bombings, investigators have sought the public’s help in identifying a shadowy subject captured on surveillance camera even.

They have never revealed whether the attempted bombings were directly linked to the Jan. 6 attack, like perhaps to distract or divert law enforcement from the planned rally headlined by Trump and the march on the Capitol that followed.

Hours after the bombs were planted, Trump delivered a fiery speech at the White House ellipse in which he told thousands of supporters to “fight like hell” to keep him in power despite his 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden.

The MAGA mob marched to the Capitol, overwhelmed police and stormed the building in hopes of blocking Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral college win.

Seeking a breakthrough, the FBI last January publicized additional information about the investigation, including an estimate that the suspect was about 5-foot-7, as well as previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs.

The bureau had for years struggled to pinpoint a suspect despite hundreds of tips, a review of tens of thousands of video files and a significant number of interviews.

In the absence of harder evidence, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media outlets promoted conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs. House Republicans also criticized security lapses, questioning how law enforcement failed to detect the bombs for 17 hours.

Before being tapped as FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino claimed the act was an “inside job” and involved a “massive cover-up.”