The Trump administration ramped up its case on Tuesday against the man accused of planting pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021.
Virginia resident Brian Cole, Jr. faces new armed terrorism and weapons of mass destruction charges along with his initial counts of transporting explosives and malicious attempt to use them, a new grand jury indictment shows. Cole could now face up to life in prison if convicted on the weapons charge alone.
The FBI arrested Cole in December for allegedly planting the explosives, which did not detonate. Cole told federal agents in a subsequent interview that “something just snapped” in his mind and made him want to attack both political parties, according to prosecutors.
“For no logical reason at all, the government has gone from identifying the alleged device as an explosive to now referring to that same device as a ‘weapon of mass destruction,’ knowing experts have said this device would not have detonated,” Mario Williams, an attorney for Cole, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It raises serious concerns about how this case is being presented and why that shift is being made now.”
Tuesday’s new indictment accuses Cole of using weapons of mass destruction against interstate and foreign commerce and committing terrorism “with the intent to intimidate and coerce” civilian populations.
Phone records, bank data and vehicle information led federal law enforcement to conclude Cole obtained bomb-making parts and planted the two devices in D.C., court documents show. He allegedly continued buying such materials after laying the explosives. The Trump administration boasted that it identified Cole by using case information left over from the Biden-Harris administration with more efficiency, ending a nearly five-year manhunt.
President Donald Trump issued a blanket pardon for most pro-Trump protesters arrested at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, prompted by the 2020 election. Cole’s defense team asked the court to dismiss his charges in March, arguing the pardon for election protesters also applies to his alleged conduct. Cole is being held in jail until trial.
“The government now wants Brian Cole Jr. (a Black man) to go down in history as the only alleged, accused January 6-related individual to serve not only a jail sentence, but to serve the rest of his life in prison,” Williams told the DCNF.
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