The FBI says it was either “sheer incompetence or complete intentional negligence” to let the DC pipe‑bomb investigation sit for almost five years before a suspect was finally taken into custody Thursday morning, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Va., is set to appear in federal court in Washington, D.C. this Friday afternoon for his first arraignment. He faces charges for planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021—just hours before the Capitol was stormed by President Trump’s supporters.
“During the prior administration the evidence was left untouched for four years,” Patel explained on “Fox News at Night” Thursday evening. “No new evidence surfaced from five years ago.”
Patel told host Trace Gallagher that the FBI examined a staggering three million lines of data, digging back into cell‑tower logs and request additional information from telecom providers. “We questioned why phone numbers weren’t scrubbed, why connections weren’t established, and why no geolocation data was pursued,” he said. “The result was either sheer incompetence or complete intentional negligence—neither of which is acceptable for the FBI.” He added that the agency has since revamped its procedures over the past eight months, not just for this case, to streamline searches and clarify evidence handling.
Deputy Director Dan Bongino led the intensive review, saying the team “went out to the country, brought in our experts, and said, ‘We are going to look at every single piece of evidence again.’”
Prosecutors say that bank and cell‑phone records tie Cole to the creation and placement of the pipe bombs—an investigation that began in 2019. If convicted on the current two counts, Cole could face between 15 and 30 years in prison, with the possibility of additional charges.
The bomb plot was a top priority for former Fox news host turned FBI deputy director Bongino, who in a 2024 podcast suggested it might be run by a “connected anti‑Trump insider or an inside job.” He defended his involvement on a recent conversation with Sean Hannity, noting that his role now is “to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
Bongino also said investigators are “pretty comfortable we have our guy.”
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