Federal prosecutors say a Virginia man has confessed to manufacturing and planting two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democrat national committees on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, according to newly filed court documents.
The suspect, Brian J. Cole Jr., was arrested this month and is charged with transporting and attempting to use improvised explosive devices in downtown Washington, D.C.
"Following his December 4, 2025 arrest, the defendant waived his Miranda rights and gave a detailed confession to the charged offenses," the Sunday court filing read.
Prosecutors say surveillance footage, cellphone location data, and years of purchase records place Cole at both locations within minutes of one another Jan. 5, 2021.
The FBI later determined the devices were fully functional pipe bombs that failed to detonate and were not discovered until the following day.
Cole gave a detailed, videotaped confession, admitting he built the bombs, transported them in his car, and set 60-minute timers before placing them outside the two party headquarters.
Cole told investigators after his arrest 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 wrote in the Sunday filing.
The allegations were laid out in a Justice Department memo arguing Cole should remain locked up as the case moves forward.
The homemade bombs did not detonate and were discovered Jan. 6, the afternoon that protesters supporting President Donald Trump objected to the certification of Joe Biden's election at the Capitol.
Cole denied his actions were connected to Congress or the events of Jan. 6, according to the filing.
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 was 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 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 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.
Newsmax writer Eric Mack and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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