What’s Not Being Said about the Alleged Pipe Bomber
The arrest affidavit for Brian Cole, the 30 year old guy charged as the pipe bomber today, is here.
The evidence consists of:
Phone records placing him on Capitol Hill at the time the FBI believes the bombs to have been placed.
The seven transactions between the COLE CELLPHONE and Provider’s towers occurred at approximately 7:39 p.m., 7:44 p.m., 7:59 p.m., 8:14 p.m., 8:23 p.m., and 8:24 p.m. Two transactions took place at 7:39 p.m. During this time period, the COLE CELLPHONE had transactions with five different sectors on Provider’s cell towers.
a. At approximately 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with a particular sector of Provider tower 59323, which faces southeast (approximately 120˚) from its location at 103 G Street, Southwest in Washington, D.C. (“Sector A”). Also at 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with a particular sector of Provider tower 126187, which faces east1 (approximately 90˚) from its location at 200 Independence Avenue, Southwest in Washington, D.C. (“Sector B”). Video surveillance footage shows that at approximately 7:39:32 p.m., the individual who placed the pipe bombs walked westbound on D Street, Southeast and then turned southbound on South Capitol Street, Southeast. These locations are consistent with the coverage areas of Sector A and B.
b. At approximately 7:44:36 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with Sector B of Provider tower 126187. Video surveillance footage shows that at approximately 7:44:36 p.m., the individual who placed the pipe bombs walked east on Ivy Street, Southeast. This location is consistent with the coverage area of Sector B.
c. At approximately 7:59:36 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with a particular sector of Provider tower 147990 which faces south (approximately 180˚) from its location at 200 Independence Avenue, Southwest in Washington, D.C. (“Sector C”). Video surveillance footage shows that at approximately 7:59:38 p.m., the individual who placed the pipe bombs walked southbound on New Jersey Avenue, Southeast then turned eastbound on E Street, Southeast. These locations are consistent with the coverage area of Sector C.
d. At approximately 8:14:36 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with Provider tower 45111 which faces west (approximately 255˚) from its location at 101 Independence Avenue, Southeast in Washington, D.C. (“Sector D”). Video surveillance footage shows that at approximately 8:14:15 p.m., the individual who placed the pipe bombs exited Rumsey Court and walked westbound through an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the RNC then walked northbound onto First Street, Southeast. This location is consistent with the coverage area of Sector D.
e. At approximately 8:23:59 p.m. and 8:24:06 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with Provider tower 144340, which faces west (approximately 295˚) from its location at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Southeast in Washington, D.C. (“Sector E”). Video surveillance footage last captures the individual who placed the pipe bombs at 8:18 p.m. walking eastbound on Rumsey Court in the direction of tower 144340, which is approximately 1/2 mile east of the individual’s last recorded location. The last recorded location is consistent with the coverage area of Sector E.
A license plate reader showing his car arriving at Capitol Hill that evening.
On January 5, 2021, at approximately 7:10 p.m., COLE’s Nissan Sentra was observed driving past a License Plate Reader at the South Capitol Street exit from Interstate 395 South, which is less than one-half mile from the location where the individual who placed the devices was first observed on foot near North Carolina and New Jersey Avenues, Southeast at 7:34 p.m. Approximately 5 minutes later, at 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE began to interact with Provider towers in the area.
Purchases of components consistent with the construction of the pipebombs, including paying cash for a battery connector consistent with the pipe bombs in 2019.
Both pipe bombs were manufactured using a nine-volt (9V) battery connector with attached red and black wires. The nine-volt battery connectors used in the pipe bombs had identifying information on the black and red insulated wires that were consistent with those distributed in North America by a known company and its predecessors (the “Nine Volt Distributor”). COLE purchased five of the Nine Volt Distributor’s nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center in northern Virginia on or about November 12 and December 28, 2019, including cash purchases made during the December transaction. Fewer than 8,000 of Nine Volt Distributor’s nine-volt battery connectors were distributed in the United States between December 2017 and January 5, 2021. [my emphasis]
A purchase made across the street from the alley way on December 14.
Approximately three weeks before the pipe bombs were placed, on or about December 14, 2020, COLE made a purchase at a restaurant located near First and D Streets, Southeast. The restaurant is located across the street from the entrance to Rumsey Court on D Street, Southeast.
There’s nothing that ties those weird sneakers to Cole at all. [Corrected]
Certainly, he’s a candidate, and should have been IDed as such in 2021. But the affidavit lacks the kind of thing we saw all the time in real January 6 affidavits: Personal communications. Signs of planning in the period after Trump announced the rally. While there are a bunch of components purchased in November 2020, after the election, there’s not a single data point in the affidavit between when Trump announced the rally on December 19 and when Cole was on Capitol Hill on January 5, 2021.
Surely, FBI has already obtained warrants for all that and it is at least consistent with someone who had been playing with bomb-making for two years before placing these bombs.
But they’re not telling what’s in them.
You get the feeling they might not tell the story Kash Patel and Pam Bondi want to tell. What if finding the pipe bomber gets them fired, just like responding competently to COVID got Anthony Fauci fired and targeted?
DOJ has assigned Jocelyn Ballantine to this case. You may recall that she made false claims in support of efforts to throw out the Mike Flynn case in 2020.
Update: Per Ryan Reilly, Cole (who wouldn’t have been assigned an attorney yet) told the FBI that he believed in 2020 election fraud claims.
“responding competently to COVID got Anthony Fauci fired and targeted”
Correction – Fauci was not fired, he continued to serve into the Biden Administration and retired in 2022.
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Are you missing a word after “the”, Marcy, in “What if finding the pipe bomber gets the fired”? “investigator”?
Or maybe you mean “them”–referring to Bondi & Patel?
The latter. I think.
Correct. I have a cold, and it’s killing what accuracy I normally aspire too.
Y’all didn’t notice my 3-L alleged in the title!
The extra ‘l’ makes the allegation stronger
Rest up! We need you tomorrow with Nicole… 10 days is a long time in this time warp
“What if finding the pipe bomber gets the [sic: them?] fired, just like responding competently to COVID got Anthony Fauci fired and targeted?”
This.
I can’t tell you how many folks I know – federal workers, federal contractors, folks with federal grants, etc. — ask themselves some version of this question every day. What used to be an ordinary “I’m happy doing my work” kind of thing now has this additional layer of “will doing my job right get me fired?” concern.
“Those weird sneakers are not mentioned at all.”
another small correction (unless I am misunderstanding your point), the shoes are mentioned on pg 2:
“In video surveillance, the individual was wearing dark pants, a grey hooded sweatshirt,
dark gloves, Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes,”
[Moderator’s note: see your comment at 4:07 pm. /~Rayne]
It is mentioned as a known fact of the case, but I think Dr. Wheeler meant it’s not mentioned as part of the new evidence presented in the affidavit.
Correct. They haven’t tied him to the sneakers yet. Or explained where he got explosives from.
My understanding is that the story is that he disposed of the shoes. Not having them or the ability to link them to Cole likely explains their lack of mention.
This affidavit strikes me as “here’s enough to justify the arrest” without giving away everything they have that will come out at trial. It will have to come out sometime, but not necessarily all at the beginning.
Right. Or it’s possible that’s all they’ve got.
There are still things that ring funny about this: such as why someone who covered themselves so well would do everything else in a way that left a trail.
Ignorance? It is surprising that he apparently didn’t think to leave his mobile at home. And maybe the car as well.
Ditto the component purchases, i suppose. Given that there was just a single (known) cash purchase it seems that it may have been an anomaly rather than OpSec. But the FBI likely only knows about it because they’d done the legwork on tracking down purchases of that item.
Whether they compared old surveillance video with each purchase, or some other identifier, all they needed was the store’s date/time record for each sale of the item. That is, they weren’t going the other way: looking through every electronic purchase, by anyone, which matched the item. For that given cash sale they may have looked at old video, or found something else which placed him there at that time.
He may have assumed that the earlier restaurant visit was safe, but once he’s a suspect that record becomes another nail in the coffin. Again: He shouldn’t have been anywhere nearby, at any time previous, with his mobile.
Finally — and firmly in the IANAL dept — i wonder whether they’re counting on those details (the ones you pointed out are lacking) NOT coming out at trial. After all, his defense lawyer surely wouldn’t want to dig into all of that.
Here’s a conspiracy theory: DOJ needed an arrest so they got a Trump supporter to take the fall, knowing he would be taken care of, pardoned and paid off.
The public evidence must have been gathered (even by a distracted DOJ) early on; it’s very basic stuff, and those streets were eerily empty that night. It’s not like they had throngs of potential suspects to sort through. The bomber stood out…almost like he (I still am unconvinced on this) wanted to be identified.
For me the question becomes, what took so long? If this *is* the evidence, it should have been gathered within the first month. Certainly, if we account for major distractions, within the first year. Which makes me wonder about the validity of the entire conveniently timed announcement, so beautifully designed to redeem Kash Patel while Pete Hegseth drowns in the Caribbean wreckage.
The theory of the case seems to be that the suspect was not at all part of the J6 mob, but just happened to want to drop pipe bombs off that morning? And that he gathered the materials years before, then dropped off the map? I have a low tolerance for conspiracy but until the facts are presented color me skeptical that it isn’t more than another Kash attack
“so beautifully designed to redeem Kash Patel while Pete Hegseth drowns in the Caribbean wreckage.”
And ironically, (or not), only two or three days after Marcy posts her crystal ball – like post on Kash’s desperation to keep his job.
“Prepare for the Hunger Games”.
A bit surprising they didn’t piece this together a long time ago. Admittedly there are a lot of possible cars entering the city from many routes and if the holder of the registration registers a blank in law enforcement records nothing would signal him out for a closer look, like cell tower records.
That cell tower info is available to law enforcement only with a warrant? They are available in bulk or on a person by person basis? With bulk data, license plate cameras and some AI finding this becomes more likely. Just guessing.
The FBI raided the family bail bonds business as well. One analysis I heard was that the videos had indicated the suspect was 5’7” but Cole is 5’6”.
The affidavit discusses this:
With sports shoes on the feet and a hood over the head, that is pretty much bang on the money.
5’6″/5’7″. Likely an inch is an acceptable error.
#tu
I am struck by the dates in this affidavit. Items they cite as being purchased by Cole go back to 2019 – well before the events of January 6, 2021.
This leaped out to me, too, as cited by Marcy above: “COLE purchased five of the Nine Volt Distributor’s nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center in northern Virginia on or about November 12 and December 28, 2019, including cash purchases made during the December transaction. ”
I’m really curious as to how the FBI tied these cash purchases, over a year before the bombs were dropped off, to Cole. Video in the store? Cell phone records showing his phone in the store on those two dates? It’s not like an agent could have come into the store in 2021 or 2022 and said to the clerks “Do you remember selling a couple of battery connectors to a guy over a year ago?” I don’t know about cell phone data retention practices, but my sense is that video surveillance data is not regularly kept for over a year.
For the rest of the purchases cited, the assumption is that a credit card was used, and the DOJ could (and presumably will) introduce the credit card records of those purchases at trial. What, on the other hand, will they use to substantiate this claim with respect to cash purchases?
There’s a *lot* more that isn’t being said here.
Absolute naked speculation, but he might have had a loyalty account at Micro Center that he mentioned when he bought the battery connectors. They always ask if you have one, and if you give them the phone number associated with the account, even a cash purchase would be recorded to the account.
Golly Gee – not to add to the naked speculation and conspiracy thinking but which massive government data sets were accessed earlier this year and compiled and used to find these incredible and genuine nuggets of facts?
Did Frank Drebin unretire or did DOGE / Palantir et al deliver the connections?
No disrespect intended at any FBI or authority who did the real leg work to find this but I find it odd, at best.
It’s probably a lot less complicated than that. They found who was selling the item, then took a look at their sales/inventory records. Then they might have referenced surveillance video for the date & time of that cash sale.
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Golly gee, your gratutious sarcasm is appreciated, but once they figured out that little battery connector had very limited distribution by only a few outlets from one distributor, all they had to do was ask the few outlets for sales records (which would include loyalty account sales). Some outlets might demand a warrant or subpoena, but others might just hand them over. You don’t need magical surveillance technology or a vast conspiracy for that. All you need are good forensics to identify and research the component and the willingness to ask.
Note that I’m not saying they have the right person. I’m just saying that finding the fact that he bought battery connectors like the ones in the bombs, even with cash, is probably not that difficult or mysterious.
Wen Ho Lee is on line 1, Steven Hatfill is on line 2, Richard Jewel ‘s relatives are on line 3. Maybe the FBI is right on this one but the bureau has a long history of screw-ups.
Convict-1 and his minions were in desperate need of a patsy, and now they will fling it out far and wide that they ‘solved’ a case that Biden’s DoJ could not solve. I have many of the same doubts as others here about the timelines and other gaps. A defense attorney will enjoy digging into them, perhaps with an opportunity for graymail as EW hinted above.
Make up your mind: He’s an innocent patsy, or a conspirator whose lawyer can graymail Trump & co?
Here’s another option: He’s an opportunistic extremist who did this entirely on his own, though has uncomfortable connections to the kinds of people who Trump & co rely on for support. In which case DoJ might wish to minimise scrutiny of certain of his activities, including online comms and searches.
But then, so would his defense lawyer. You can’t graymail anyone without more deeply implicating your client.
As more reporting has come out about the alleged viewpoint of Cole, it seems your second possibility is more on target. My patsy idea doesn’t preclude the co-conspirator one (I doubt he’s aware of what his true task was, like the women who poisoned Kim Jong Un’s brother at the airport in Asia). As a MAGA who felt the 2020 election was stolen, he’d be okay with doing something like this.
As for graymail, we don’t know what discovery will bring. FWIW I don’t think Cole will care as a ‘true believer’ if he’s more implicated, because it is leverage for another pardon. It depends on who is linked to him. As it is, does this fall under the J6 pardon approved by Convict-1? Other J6ers are trying that argument in their cases.
Option 4: his motives were irrational. If so, that might have insulated him from investigators looking for a comprehensible motive.
There is a hint that AI was applied to the data pile and perhaps was successful in fingering a suspect/some suspects. That kind of makes sense.
FBI has been assiduous in promoting its claimed expertise in profiling, but there is little to suggest profiling is really a thing.
There are plenty of examples where motives are opaque even after the perp is definitely established. The Las Vegas machinegunner would be the poster child for this view.
Sooo…could be Not THE Pipe Bomber,just A Pipe Bomber. 2 huge distractions going on and then THIS? Now? Hmmmm…..
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A litany of bad work. I came across a memento the other day, on a little button: “Uncle Wen says Hello.” If I had not found it, I would not have recalled it now. Part of a really terrible story, with some familiar characters. Bad memories.
My initial suspicion is that the FBI found all the information in the affidavit after they identified him as a suspect. Everything in the affidavit is just data that is more likely to have been discovered after they knew who they were looking for.
Certainly the purchases would not make him a likely candidate absent some other reason to believe he is.
I’m also curious whether there’s a license plate reader saying when he left the Hill.
Looking at that list of items, I’ve probably got most of them in my basement right now except for the galvanized pipe because I don’t do plumbing. (Full Disclosure: I also don’t do bombs and explosives.) None of this is terribly specialized.
So yeah, they could go to Home Depot and ask “who did you sell X to in the last three years” but that’s gonna give them a whole lot of names. It’s “after-the-fact, did we get the right guy?” stuff, not a trail leading them to someone.
For a discussion of two improvised explosive devices, there is a complete lack of explosive materials in that 7 page affidavit.
There are wires and timers and power sources.
There are containers and non-explosive filler materials (steel wool).
There are tools, including safety glasses, gloves, wire strippers, wire connectors, etc.
There is a vehicle for delivering whatever was built.
Three is a phone for navigation and communications.
But there is no mention of anything that could actually, you know, explode, and no mention of where that material might have been acquired, and no mention of anything that ties this material to Cole.
Maybe this is typical of an affidavit like this, as the FBI has no particular desire to have this become a bomb-making instruction manual. Even so, the absence of any discussion of anything that would explode seems to be a silence that speaks loudly.
Yep. Page 2 notes “homemade black powder” was used, but page 7 shows no evidence of Cole making black powder or purchasing the ingredients used to make it. Hopefully this will be clarified as things move forward.
I think there has been an FBI list of say, between 25 and 100 people nationwide, who claimed to be the bomber or were turned in by others (friends, neighbors, extended family) who heard a person claim to be the bomber or describe placing the bombs. The materials purchases and the cell phone tower data would have been used in narrowing that list. This is the sort of information that can be withheld in the initial charging documents (I think – not certain) in order to protect witnesses.
It is indeed very curious that they’re not talking about explosives, except for the puzzling reference to “homemade” black powder. IIRC that involves just three ingredients, but is messy and dangerous to make and would result in a product of questionable quality. Why would someone do that when, in this gun-besotted nation, you can buy whole cans of smokeless or black powder for reloading cartridges or muzzle-loader shooting?
FWIW…Here is a transcript from PBS Newshour 12/4/25. Carol Leonnig is interviewed. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-led-the-fbi-to-the-man-accused-of-placing-pipe-bombs-in-d-c
“It’s really been an intense case. And the breakthrough here was not based on new evidence or a new tip, but was based on a re-review, essentially, of evidence that was already in FBI storehouses as a result of subpoenas that were issued far and wide in 2021 and 2022.
It’s really striking that, as our sources told us, this suspect could have been arrested years ago if these dots had been connected. “
First thing I need to say is IANAL. I am a paralegal, which a species of law dog that can either be quite helpful or can be as hazardous as a second lieutenant with a map and a compass. So I’m prepared from the get-go to concede I could be wrong.
Cole was arrested under 18 USC 844(d) and (i). Depending on the underlying facts, the statute of limitations could have expired as soon as next January 5. Based on certain information in the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Cole, it appears the FBI was waiting to see if Cole would re-offend before arresting him. It is also possible they had had him in their sights for some time before January 6, and were waiting to see if he was involved with others in some conspiracy.
I’m calling bullshit on whatever story the Trump gang is spinning about why it took so long to arrest Cole. The feds were waiting until they had to play their hand. Statutes of limitations are inviolable. And Donnie needed to toss a distraction out to the public, take attention away from war crimes and sex crimes and whatever crimes he and his bunch are getting up to.
I’m thinking you’re right about distraction. It could be that the FBI had some of this information a long time ago, but it’s circumstantial, and you don’t usually bring a case without a substantial likelihood of conviction. The need for distraction possibly trumped the caution about being able to convict.
BINGO! Definitely a Distraction and let’s Patel try and save his ass at the same time. Bullshit is right!
[Moderator’s note: see your comment at 9:46 pm. /~Rayne]
I think your point about the SOL is critically important. DId htey arrest this guy 32 days before the SOL expired based on probable cause w/o more? Or did they have more they’re embarrassed to say?
Golly Gee – which could it be????????
Which brings us to Pete Hegseth.
Except that he is giving orders to the whole command structure.
Enough for an arrest, but it’s a thin indictment.
The cellphone and license plate reader data probably matches thousands of people. A cash purchase more than a year before the deed? As others have noted, how did they tie that to an individual purchaser? Store videos are rarely kept a year. So how stale is some of this “evidence?” Hope they’ve got more, or they’re going to get their asses handed to them at trial.
OT, but speaking of indictments the GJ just returns no true bill for Letitia James.
Third time’s the charm, huh?
DoJ rolls snake eyes!
This administration doesn’t care about winning at trial. It’s about performance art. After all, they have the power of the pardon.
Didn’t we learn from the Adnan Syed affair that you can’t reliably pinpoint someone’s exact location from cell towers, or has the technology fundamentally improved since then?
The indictment does not claim that he was pinpointed by way of the cell towers. It describes in which direction the device faces and compares the ping times with video of the suspect recorded in those directions.
It’s saying, iow, that the person in the video is very likely to have been carrying Cole’s mobile, based on those pings coming from a device in those general areas, at those specific moments.
Cole could argue “Yes, that was my phone, and I was in those locations, but I didn’t plant any bombs. That was someone else–maybe the person walking their dog who passed me in the video.”
There are just too many arguments the defense could make based on the public information.
And then there’s the motive question, which Marcy’s update may complicate if it pans out: if he’s an election denier, why place a bomb at the GOP HQ? To deflect suspicion of partisan intent?
Remembering that it was Trump’s first term DoJ that initiated this investigation, almost any combination of weird scenarios is plausible.
He’s been talking to the FBI w/o a lawyer so they likely have most of a confession (unless an attorney can say you can’t fully mirandize a guy who is on the spectrum, as he reportedly is, which won’t work).
But I think there is a big challenge to the collection of the tower dumps, particularly given the way 4A has evolved in the last 4 years. ANd he also seems to qualify for a Trump pardon.
EW:
The autism raises other possibilities, both as to judgement and as to how the GOP will play this: possible diminished capacity finding, and the pipe bombs were caused by vaccines.
Just a guess on the cell towers. Given Capitol Hill security needs, I’m thinking that many towers in DC have a StingRay attached to them. The StingRay is an IMSI-catcher with both passive (digital analyzer) and active (cell-site simulator) capabilities. When operating in active mode, the device mimics a wireless carrier cell tower in order to force all nearby mobile phones and other cellular data devices to connect to it. Sort of a “pen register” with no warrant needed.
Also, our military and USSS have plenty of cool SIGINT devices to capture and ident cell signals. DC probably has a fair share installed here and there.
But can you use the cool stuff in open court?
Yes. It’s called “bootstrapping”. It’s routine to take unwarranted info to a judge (especially the FISA court) and claim inevitable discovery to get a warrant to discover what you already found. I was once in a conference where an FBI agent proudly claimed this tactic as ordinary.
There is a way to detect Stingrays. Someone did a sweep back when they found donnytinyhands refused to use a secure phone. During his first term they detected over dozen in range of the White House.
BTW, the gov’t is still not admitting the existence of Stingrays. I had an old friend suddenly go dark on me when I made a remark about them. I have been since told that being in Wikipedia does not mean it is not classified.
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FWIW I’ve was at Mall for the last 5051 event with an EFF Rayhunter device and it did not indicate any StingRays in the area throughout the event. What I hadn’t noticed previously was the many poles (painted brown) with multiple cameras that would provide continuous 360 degree coverage.
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I stand corrected. Now I am going to have to research where that was said. It was probably someone’s assumption printed as fact.
I know it was right after donnie got in, there was a mini scandal over his insistence in using a commercial phone (iPhone?). I don’t think the Rayhunter existed yet. Stingrays are portable. They are built into a suitcase.
And good on you for doing the 5051 event.
None of that showed up in the filings on the geowarrants targeting the Capitol day of. It was very accurate cell location, but just from the providers.
Is the government now admitting to using them? I assumed after that classified info dance with my friend they still were trying hide them.
I left DC 40 years ago just to get away from security clearances and secret information. I can’t talk tech with my friend from 45 years ago because he is retaining his clearance in his retirement to do consulting. If I accidently talk about technology that bumps into something classified, no matter how tangent, that conversation ends.
I can genuinely relate to what you say – more than a few similar experiences.
Well if they try, and fail to convict, they can always blame “the DEI FBI of Biden”.
Meh…that gum has lost its flavor.
Trump’s ‘blame Biden’ strategy waning as his own voters turn on him
https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/poll-shows-trumps-blame-biden-1543610
Saw a clip from the presser; Kash was doing exactly that, “wondering why” the FBI sat on it for years until Kash the New Broom arrived.
The silence on the suspect’s communications almost sounded like a coverup itself from our current DoJ.
If they could politicize the arrest as a “leftist”, “commie”, or “trans” individual, Patel and Bondi would be running around with bullhorns, yelling to the heavens.
But, what are they to do with the arrest of someone in Trump’s army of seditionists?
This is only my opinion, but I think there is zero chance that the pipe bomb layer was not in contact with high members of Team Trump overthrow the government project.
It’s hard to believe this corrupt administration would allow the investigation to go very far in that direction.
They totally pretended J6 didn’t happen when asked about it (only once) at the presser.
What we’ve learned from years of watching the Trump show is that many things make some sense if you remember that the golden age for Trump was the 80s. In the murder mysteries of the 80s, the culprit is most of the time the first character appearing on screen at the beginning of the episode that is conveniently overlooked until the end because he/she said it wasn’t him/her. This oh so clever mechanic has made Trump think that to hide something, the best thing is to deny it without anyone asking. The added benefit is that when it comes out, it can be (absurdly) presented as a he said /they said situation and his base believes him. The Trump crowd adopts the ways of the leader : they give the game away in their unprompted preliminary denials. There has not been any new lead /tip/ info since Biden actually means there has been new tip/lead/info since Biden.
This case and the skepticism it produces are the long-term toxic effects of Trump’s perversion of DOJ. We no longer assume that, especially for Jan 6-related cases, DOJ and FBI are acting on facts. We assume public statements by Bondi and Patel aren’t credible because we (not unreasonably) suspect a political motive. Will an equally skeptical jury acquit for the same reason even if evidence of guilt is there? P.S. Ballantine?? Should’ve been Garland’s first firing.
Very interesting analysis. I wonder if they’re still investigating where the Christmas Day 2020 bomber in Nashville, TN learned how to manufacture and more importantly where he tested his Thermobaric bomb?
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The suspect is 30 years old now and lives with his mother. On January 6th, 2021 he would have been 25 or 26. Probably living with Mom then too. He doesn’t sound like a real national security threat to me! Someone upthread also pointed out that no explosive material is mentioned in the affidavit. Simple gunpowder, packed with steel wool, in an eight inch length of pipe is not going to kill anyone over ten feet away. I’m doubting this punk had C4 or any other “plastic” high explosive. My hunch is that this is some pathetic incel schmuck who lives in Mom’s basement and listens to too much right-wing garbage on TV, radio, podcast, etc…..
Trump’s pardon auto-pen is at the ready if it goes that way!
As I asked above, the already existing J6 pardon might apply to this guy, so in the rush to bust him before the SOL runs out, and the fact that this case is DOA because of Convict-1’s vague pardon (I’d appreciate input from the lawyers here on whether it applies, IIRC it also covered not-yet-identified suspects), I have to wonder whether this is all about blaming Biden for not cracking the case before this.
Also, as noted elsewhere in the post / thread, there are definite gaps in the indictment and I am pretty sure a jury will not vote 12-0 to convict unless more actual evidence turns up.
He’s probably autopardoned anybody who needs that. He just needs to think it, according to his stooges.
I’m just getting around to reading arrest affidavit, but here’s some of the info we had early on:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/01/25/some-key-gaps-in-the-january-6-story/#comment-879808
I wonder which podcasts this guy was marinating in during these years…
Bannnon’s WarRoom?
Jones’ InfoWars?
From all we know about this DOJ and FBI, I really wonder if they would have pursued this if only the DNC was targeted, and not the RNC.
Now I am wondering why he targeted the RNC? Did he believe they were complicit?
Maybe he despised the so-called “Uniparty”?
Or, if he targeted the RNC.
His role in the coup attempt seems to have been to draw law enforcement away from the Capitol.
That would make the violent mob assault more likely to succeed in getting Sen Grassley to take over for Mike Pence in the counting of the Electoral votes.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/grassley-says-he-was-not-involved-in-any-conversations-about-him-presiding-over-congress-on-jan-6
OT MOSCOW — U.S. company NCH Capital said on Friday that it has no plans to sell major Russian agricultural producer AgroTerra [one of Russia’s top-20 agricultural landholders], after the head of Russia’s second-largest bank said it was in talks to buy the firm.
AgroTerra was placed under temporary state management by a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2024.
Russian authorities have confiscated or placed under state management assets worth some $50 billion since the start of the war in Ukraine from Russian and foreign owners in the biggest redistribution of property since the privatization drive that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On Tuesday Andrei Kostin, CEO of VTB, said the bank was in talks to buy AgroTerra, one of Russia’s top-20 agricultural landholders. He said the bank was already helping the state to manage its assets.
However, in a statement to Reuters, NCH said that NCH Agribusiness Partners, a private equity fund owned by a group of U.S. institutional investors and managed by New York-based NCH Capital, has “no plans to sell AgroTerra and is not in negotiations with any party regarding a possible sale.”
NCH’s reluctance to sell its Russian assets to VTB may affect the bank’s ambitions to build a national agriculture champion for Russia….
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/12/05/us-owner-of-major-russian-agriculture-firm-says-no-plans-to-sell-up/
If this genius didn’t carry his cellphone and drive his own car, AI might not have found him.
Cell phone pings is how the Idaho State muderer was caught as well, plus genetic genealogy from a family-based DNA profile.
Assumes this guy is the perp. With Bondi and Patel, I would never make that assumption.
Let the facts fall where they may!
From CapitolHunters: It suggests an unprecedented effort to bypass official channels
to push out the truth. That’s a good sign.
https://bsky.app/profile/capitolhunters.bsky.social/post/3m7aw2tcxzc2c
Dec 5, 2025, 11:24 AM
Maybe Brian Cole is the person who placed the bombs, but the video shows the bomber sat on a bench at DNC HQ, set down a backpack and then, pretty unambiguously to me, adjusted bra straps on both arms under the hoodie.
I can’t see any other reason to make that movement.
If it’s a male, their tank top undershirt may not have shifted?
example https://www.underweareview.com/post/most-comfortable-tank-top-undershirts
I tried to conjure that up in my mind, but wearing it under a hoodie? At any rate, if it’s him it’s him, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. But the possibility that others may have been involved needs to be investigated even if it turns out that he’s the “lone nut” type of terrorist.
why am i reminded of the pathetic Butler, PA alleged shooter?
re- Alan Charbonneau December 6, 2025 6:47 pm
I don’t make the rules as to how and/or what to wear under a hoodie.
Maybe it was suspenders and/or gun holster(s) he was adjusting.
Behold a post that has done more well-aging than I ever thought possible in less than 36 hours.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, they don’t have a good case against him. But there are lots of “known unknowns” here.
If he’s talking to the FBI without a lawyer, it seems like a full confession may have happened.
His DNA could be all over the outside and the inside of both bombs.
There may be an issue here with him being “on the spectrum”, which could make him difficult to prosecute.
He may already be covered by the Jan 6 pardon.
And on and on. The government has no obligation to show us all of the evidence against him. I’m not reading much into it at this point.
Expect Cole to get a visit from Todd Blanche and to receive a puppy and unlimited toilet paper.
Some of this doesn’t make sense. Specifically, there isn’t a reason for anyone to make their own black powder. In most states, you can walk into your local sporting goods store, plop down $40 on the counter and walk out with a one pound can/bottle of black powder. No questions asked, no I.D. required.
BATF regulations don’t apply for quantities 50 lbs and under.