Hardware purchases and location data: How the FBI says it made an arrest in the DC pipe bomb case, nearly five years later
By Eric Levenson, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, Holmes Lybrand, Brian Todd, CNN
(CNN) — The quiet calm of a weekday morning in a Woodbridge, Virginia, neighborhood was suddenly interrupted Thursday by a loud siren, two Humvee-style vehicles and a group of SWAT-like figures in camouflage, rifles trained on a house.
“This is the FBI. We have a federal search warrant,” the voice coming over a loudspeaker said, according to a neighbor. “Come out of the house with your hands up.”
The ensuing arrest of a 30-year-old recluse who lived with his parents resolves, Justice Department officials said, a mystery that had vexed investigators across three presidential administrations: Who placed two pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC, on the eve of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021?
Over nearly five years, the investigators reviewed roughly 39,000 video files, conducted more than a thousand interviews and received over 600 tips, the FBI said. The reward for information on the suspect, starting at $50,000, was raised to $100,000 and then $500,000 as the years passed by.
On Thursday, prosecutors and FBI officials stood at a podium and proudly announced federal charges against Brian Cole Jr., accused of building and planting the pipe bombs. He is expected in DC federal court Friday to face federal charges. Officials said the yearslong investigation is still ongoing, with more search warrants being executed.
Neighbors who spoke to CNN, most of whom asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case, described Cole as a reclusive presence. Several said they frequently spotted Cole taking long walks through the subdivision with his pet chihuahua, often wearing headphones. One neighbor said he was struck by Cole’s habit of walking in shorts and red Crocs, no matter the weather.
How did investigators home in on Cole? Trump administration officials said the breakthrough stemmed from a fresh set of eyes and renewed focus, bolstered by existing video, cell phone location data and the purchase history of materials used in the bombs.
“Today’s arrest happened because the Trump administration has made this case a priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference.
“Let me be clear, there was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” she added.
Over the years, persons of interest have come and gone, a former law enforcement official said. Cole didn’t become the focus of investigators’ interest until recent weeks, current and former US officials briefed on the matter told CNN.
The case of the pipe bombs has long been overshadowed by the lawlessness and violence of the riot the following day, when President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
One pipe bomb was placed outside the DNC headquarters and another was placed in an alley behind the RNC building between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. on January 5, 2021. The discovery of the bombs at about 1 p.m. on January 6 drew a significant police presence, pulling officers from the nearby Capitol complex as the riot was beginning.
The FBI has said the pipe bombs were viable and capable of harming anyone near them if they had exploded. Kamala Harris, then the Vice President-elect, came within 20 feet of the bomb placed at the DNC.
The timing of the pipe bombs and the January 6 riot has led to questions and conspiracy theories about whether they were connected in any way. Current FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, in his prior role as a podcaster, had even said he believed the pipe bombs were an “inside job” carried out by the FBI.
But at Thursday’s news conference, Bongino praised the FBI’s work and smiled as he recalled the “aha” moment when Darren Cox, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, informed him that they were closing in on a suspect.
“He said, ‘Are you sitting down?’” Bongino said.
“I said, ‘Oh boy, why? Is this bad news?’ And he said, ‘I think we got him.’”
Surveillance video clues
The FBI has previously released surveillance videos of the suspect that officials said offered some key clues.
For one, according to a criminal affidavit filed Wednesday, the videos showed that the two pipe bombs were placed by the same person, wearing dark pants, a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark gloves, and a medical face mask that obscured their face.
The suspect was wearing notable sneakers: black and light grey Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo. Fewer than 25,000 of those shoes had been sold at the time the bombs were placed.
The videos also showed the suspect adjusting their eyeglasses. The FBI has said it used the videos to estimate that the suspect was about 5-foot-7-inches tall.
Cole, the affidavit notes, wears corrective eyeglasses and is 5-foot-6-inches tall.
Asked whether those sneakers had been recovered, Bondi and US Attorney Jeanine Pirro smiled during Thursday’s news conference.
“You’ve asked very good investigative questions, but this is ongoing, very active,” Bondi said, declining to offer details.
Alleged bomb-making purchases, location data and vehicle
Dozens of FBI and ATF agents and millions of dollars were spent analyzing every piece of evidence in the case.
The criminal affidavit against Cole primarily relies on purchase history of alleged bomb-making materials, cell phone location data and a vehicle license plate reader.
In 2019 and 2020, Cole purchased multiple items consistent with the components used to make the bombs at Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s and Micro Center stores, according to the affidavit.
The FBI assessed that the pipe bombs were made of a 1-inch-by-8-inch pipe, end caps, a 14-gauge red and black electrical wire, a nine-volt battery, a nine-volt battery connector, a white kitchen timer and steel wool, among other parts, the affidavit states.
Investigators then went through Cole’s purchase history and determined he bought all of those supplies over 2019 and 2020, the affidavit states. He also purchased equipment that would help put together the bombs, including safety glasses and a wire stripping tool, the document states.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” Pirro said at Thursday’s news conference of the investigation, noting that 233,000 black end caps were distributed in 2020. “The FBI had to go through the sale of every one of (the end caps) to try to find commonality with an individual, along with the purchase of the pipe itself, the cap ends, the wires, the steel and the nine-volt batteries.”
As for the cell phone location data, the affidavit states the FBI obtained historical cell site records for January 5, 2021, and records associated with Cole’s cell phone.
The records are “consistent with the Cole cell phone being in the area of the RNC and DNC” that day, according to the affidavit.
Finally, Cole’s vehicle, a 2017 Nissan Sentra, was observed driving past a license plate reader at about 7:10 p.m. that same night less than a half-mile from the spot where the pipe bomb suspect was first spotted, according to the affidavit.
Officials focused on ‘cold case’
Trump administration officials said the key to solving this case was their focus and desire to do so, and they accused the Biden administration of failing to sufficiently prioritize it.
“This cold case languished for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino came to the FBI,” Bondi said. “The FBI along with US Attorney Pirro have worked tirelessly for months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden Administration for four long years.”
Current and former officials, however, said the characterization that the evidence was gathering dust until the Trump administration is false.
In May, Bongino said in a post on X solving the pipe bombs case was among his and Patel’s top priorities.
“Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,” he wrote. “We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases.”
Speaking Thursday, Patel said they brought in a new set of experts this year to dig into the vast evidence collected.
“We brought in a team of experts who were the best at what they do in their specific fields to reevaluate that evidence, to dive back in, and to not come back with a ‘no’ for an answer until they had found the suspect,” he said.
For his part, Cox, with the FBI’s Washington field office, said FBI agents never stopped investigating the case.
“It is the resolve and determination of our investigators that ultimately led to the identification and the arrest of this suspect,” he said.
“Though it had been nearly 5 years, our team continued to churn through massive amounts of data and tips that we used to identify this suspect,” Cox added.
And despite the criticisms of previous investigative efforts, there is a lot of value in bringing in a new set of eyes and fresh perspective to a stalled case, said Andrew McCabe, a former FBI deputy director and CNN senior law enforcement analyst.
“Looking at that information in new ways, that can usually trigger some new leads,” he said. “Fresh perspective on an old set of facts can often sometimes lead to breaking open a case like that.”
CNN’s Casey Tolan and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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