The Biden Administration’s FBI reportedly had all the information it needed to identify the person who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C., on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.
Federal authorities arrested 30-year-old Brian Cole of Woodbridge, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
MS Now reported, “The FBI’s case against the suspect is not based on a new breakthrough, according to two sources, but instead on a review the FBI conducted in recent weeks of evidence that had already been gathered and which the department had in its possession. The sources requested anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive case. That voluminous trove of material was largely collected in 2021 and 2022.
“The suspect’s arrest is expected to cause significant embarrassment for the bureau and the enormous team it assigned to the pipe bomb investigation, the two sources said, because the suspect could have been arrested years ago if investigators had earlier connected the dots they already had in hand,” the outlet added.
“This development could also be seen as a vindication of Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who has long focused on the pipe bomb case and had urged the bureau to redouble its efforts to solve the case when he took office.”
In early January, weeks before then-President Joe Biden left office, the FBI released new information about the pipe bomber suspect.
The information came the same day a Republican-led House joint sub-committee’s scathing report of the FBI’s probe into the incidents was published.
The FBI is releasing more information about its pipe bomb investigation, including an estimate that the unidentified suspect is about 5 feet 7 inches tall. The bureau also is posting previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs. https://t.co/5gUy2GMOa4
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 3, 2025
“As part of a renewed call for tips from the public, the FBI posted on its Seeking Information webpage previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs near the DNC and announced that it estimates the suspect to be approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall. A reward of up to $500,000 is available for information leading to the individual’s arrest and conviction,” the bureau said in a news release.
The bombs, which did not detonate, were discovered on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before the Capitol incursion. Some speculated that the devices were intended to divert police resources from the Capitol grounds.
“Over the past four years, a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, data scientists, and law enforcement partners has visited more than 1,200 residences and businesses, conducted more than 1,000 interviews, reviewed approximately 39,000 video files, and assessed more than 600 tips about who may have placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill in January 2021,” David Sundberg, then-assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, said in January.
“The suspect in this case did a very good job covering themselves up at a time that this would not be abnormal, so it didn’t raise any attention,” Sundberg said, referring to face masking during the pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
The most distinctive item of clothing the suspect was wearing was a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes, he noted. Fewer than 25,000 of these shoes were sold between August 2018 and January 2021.
The House GOP report issued in January said, “The Department of Justice has claimed that the FBI has pursued its investigations of Americans following the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, with ‘unprecedented speed and scale.’”
“In fact, the Department has charged ‘more than 1,532 individuals … in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.’ In contrast, after more than 1,400 days since two pipe bombs were placed on Capitol Hill, the FBI has made no arrest and has charged no individuals with planting the explosive devices,” the report said.
“The FBI identified multiple persons of interest during the initial weeks and months of the investigation,” the document noted, but still could not track the bomber down.
Three possibilities would seem to be the reason it took so long. First, the Biden-led FBI was genuinely incompetent, and it took new leadership under Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel to refocus the bureau.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed this Thursday, saying, “There was no new tip; there was no new witness, just good diligent police work.”
🚨 @AGPamBondi Speaks After Arrest in 2021 D.C. Pipe Bomb Case
“Today’s arrest happened because the Trump Administration has made this case a priority…The @FBI, along with @USAttyPirro and all of our prosecutors, have worked tirelessly for months, sifting through evidence that… pic.twitter.com/8GcJusUqA9
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) December 4, 2025
A second possibility is that the Biden administration did not like the political motive behind the bombing suspect, so it buried the investigation’s findings.
MS Now reported, based on two unnamed sources, that Cole, the suspect, made statements linked to anarchist ideology, which means he’s likely a leftist, and not MAGA. Trump and his supporters were the obsession of the Biden DOJ and FBI.
A third possibility is that the case against Cole is not strong enough to gain a conviction, so the Biden DOJ and FBI chose not to take the risk of going after him.
The last possibility seems the least likely, because if there were any reasonable probable cause that Cole did it, the bureau would certainly obtain a search warrant, given that bombs were involved.
BREAKING: The FBI has raided the home of the reported J6 pipe-bomb suspect, Brian Cole.pic.twitter.com/ezeINsFNOm
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 4, 2025
Time will tell, but what is known is that it took the Trump FBI to actually make the arrest, nearly five years after the incident.
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