Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted US political parties because they were ‘in charge,’ memo says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol told investigators after his arrest that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he wanted to target the country’s political parties because they were “in charge,” prosecutors said Sunday.

The allegations were laid out in a Justice Department memo arguing that Brian J. Cole Jr., who was arrested earlier this month on charges of placing pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees, should remain locked up as the case moves forward.

The memo provides the most detailed government account of statements Cole is alleged to have made to investigators and points to evidence, including bomb-making equipment found at his home after his arrest, that officials say connects him to the act. The homemade bombs did not detonate and were discovered Jan. 6, the afternoon that rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Cole denied to investigators that his actions were connected to Congress or the events of Jan. 6, the memo says. But after initially disputing that he had any involvement in the pipe bombs, prosecutors say, he confessed to placing them outside the RNC and DNC and acknowledged feeling disenchanted by the election results and sympathetic to claims by Trump and some of his allies that the contest had been stolen.

According to the memo, he told agents who interviewed him that if people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being — you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.”

He said “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse” and wanted to do something “to the parties” because “they were in charge,” according to the Justice Department’s memo. It says that when Cole was asked why he had placed the explosives at the RNC and DNC, he responded, “I really don’t like either party at this point.”

Cole was arrested on the morning of Dec. 4 at his Woodbridge, Virginia, house in what law enforcement officials described as a major breakthrough in a nearly five-year-old investigation. His lawyers will also have an opportunity to state their position on detention ahead of a hearing set for Tuesday in Washington’s federal court.