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3d ago

Alleged RNC–DNC Pipe Bomber Seeks Case Dismissal Under Trump’s Jan. 6 Pardons

The new filing tests whether the president’s 2025 clemency for Jan. 6 cases reaches alleged conduct on Jan. 5.

Attorney General Pam Bondi (3rd-R), accompanied by (L-R) US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, ATF Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, speaks during a news conference on the arrest of a suspect in the January 6 pipe bomb case at the Department of Justice on December 4, 2025, in Washington, DC.
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FBI officials examine a vehicle in front of the home of suspected January 6, 2021 pipe bomber on December 4, 2025 in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Overview

  • Brian J. Cole Jr.’s attorneys filed a 23-page motion on March 16 arguing Trump’s proclamation pardoning offenses “related to” Jan. 6 bars his prosecution.
  • Prosecutors have not yet responded in writing, and in earlier filings said Cole told the FBI his actions were not related to the Jan. 6 proceedings.
  • Cole was arrested on Dec. 4, 2025, and has pleaded not guilty to interstate transportation of explosives and attempted malicious use of explosives.
  • Investigators say phone, surveillance and license‑plate data and a post‑arrest confession link Cole to the bombs, which the FBI calls viable, while the defense says the devices could not have exploded and notes his autism diagnosis.
  • The motion cites pardoned Jan. 6 defendants David Dempsey and Kenneth Harrelson as precedent and raises threshold questions about whether the 2025 order covers uncharged individuals or acts on Jan. 5; Judge Amir Ali has not ruled and Cole remains detained.