Brian Cole Jr. Faces Federal Hearing for 2021 DC Pipe Bombing Incident
Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was arrested in December 2025 for his involvement in planting pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, DC on January 5, 2021.
He faces charges of transporting explosives across state lines and maliciously attempting to use explosives to damage or destroy property, with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years.
Cole is scheduled to appear at a federal detention hearing before a magistrate judge on Tuesday, December 30, 2025.
His defense lawyers are seeking his release pending trial, proposing home detention with GPS monitoring under supervision of his grandmother. They cite his autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a lack of prior criminal history, and no evidence suggesting flight risk. They also emphasized that no one was harmed and the bombs did not explode.
Prosecutors argue that Cole should remain in custody. They presented evidence from a home search that uncovered bomb-making components, and credit card statements indicating purchases related to the bomb materials. They also highlighted a video interview in which Cole confessed to constructing, transporting, and planting the pipe bombs after initially denying involvement.
Court documents state that Cole admitted to acting as a protest against the outcome of the 2020 election, expressing that he felt "something snapped" and that he disliked both political parties. The documents also mention that Cole claimed his motivation for the bombs stemmed from an interest in... [text truncated in source].
