What led the FBI to the man accused of placing pipe bombs in D.C.

Geoff Bennett:

The FBI announced today an arrest in its nearly five-year investigation into who placed pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the January 6 Capitol attack back in 2021. A 30-year-old man, Brian Cole Jr., was arrested and charged today.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino spoke at a press conference this afternoon.

Dan Bongino, Deputy FBI Director:

Folks, this is what it's like when you work for a president who tells you to go get the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement. You're not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices, and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen. We were going to track this person to the end of the earth.

Geoff Bennett:

Joining us with more details is the reporter who broke the story, Carol Leonnig. She is senior investigative reporter for MS NOW and co-author of "Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department."

Carol, thanks for making time for us.

Carol Leonnig, MS NOW:

Glad to be here, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

So, based on your reporting, why has this case been so hard to crack until now?

Carol Leonnig:

Geoff, this case has been one of the highest-profile and the most data-intense and enormous of all the FBI investigations that I have been covering and, honestly, of several generations in the FBI history.

It's really been an intense case. And the breakthrough here was not based on new evidence or a new tip, but was based on a re-review, essentially, of evidence that was already in FBI storehouses as a result of subpoenas that were issued far and wide in 2021 and 2022.

It's really striking that, as our sources told us, this suspect could have been arrested years ago if these dots had been connected. You will remember that the FBI had three million different data lines in this investigation. They focused especially on phone records first to figure out how many people were around the Capitol and around the DNC and the RNC when these bombs were planted January 5, the night before the certification of the election.

And then the FBI subpoenaed almost every large hardware store and box retailer looking for people who had purchased some of the components that would be used in this kind of explosive. And then they looked at also subpoenas of the records for all sorts of sneaker retailers to find anyone who purchased a particular kind of Nike shoe that they could tell the suspect had worn based on surveillance.

And, anyway, a re-review of that information led them to Brian Cole, a 30-year-old man living with his parents in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Geoff Bennett:

Is there any evidence that these pipe bombs were planted as a diversion from the January 6 Capitol attack?

Carol Leonnig:

There's nothing in the criminal complaint that the Justice Department filed in making their charges against Mr. Cole to indicate what his motives were, to indicate that he had a plan to try to pull police away from the Capitol at the same time that pro-Trump supporters were essentially breaching and marching up to the Capitol and breaking the glass and getting inside the building.

Geoff Bennett:

Carol Leonnig, senior investigative reporter for MS NOW.

Carol, thank you for sharing your reporting with us.

Carol Leonnig:

Thank you, Geoff.