MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The night before a mob of President Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 of 2021, somebody placed two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Party headquarters, which are nearby.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For almost five years, the FBI tried to find the culprit but came up empty until Thursday, when the Justice Department announced that federal agents had arrested a 30-year-old man suspected of planting those devices.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this, and he's with us now. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So what can you tell us about this person who's now in custody, and what's he charged with?
LUCAS: Well, his name is Brian Cole Jr. He is, as you guys mentioned, 30 years old. He was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, which is about 20 or so miles south of D.C. Court papers say that he lives there with his mom and that he works in the office of a bail bondsman in Northern Virginia. Now, as for the charges, he's charged with transporting an explosive device with intent to kill, as well as attempted malicious destruction with explosive materials. Those are the charges as of this morning. But officials said yesterday that this is still very much an active investigation, and prosecutors could bring more charges down the road.
MARTIN: So for almost five years, the FBI's been trying to find the person who planted these bombs. Did officials say yesterday what, after all this time, led them to Cole?
LUCAS: Right. This has been a massive investigation to try to solve this mystery over the years. And remember, these pipe bombs didn't go off on January 6, but they did draw police away from the Capitol that day - the day that rioters stormed the building. Now, officials said yesterday it wasn't a new tip that broke this case open. Here's Attorney General Pam Bondi speaking to reporters yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PAM BONDI: Let me be clear. There was no new tip. There was no new witness. Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work.
LUCAS: Now, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau brought in a new team of investigators and experts to reexamine all of the evidence that the FBI had collected over the past four-plus years. And that new team sifted through all of the data, and Patel said that's what led to new investigative leads, including a critical forensic lead, he said. And ultimately, the road led to Cole.
MARTIN: What evidence do the prosecutors have that allegedly ties Cole to these pipe bombs?
LUCAS: Well, an FBI affidavit says that records of financial transactions show that Cole bought items that were the same as the components used to build the pipe bombs that were found. So galvanized pipes, endcaps used to close the ends of the pipe bombs, steel wool, the same kind of white kitchen timers and red-black electrical wires. There's also cell phone location data that shows that Cole's cell phone was pinging cell towers in the area where the pipe bombs were left on the night that they were placed there. And then the affidavit says that a license plate reader picked up Cole's car getting off the interstate near the Capitol on the evening of January 5, just an - a half hour or so before the bombs were put in place.
MARTIN: Now, people might remember there have been a lot of conspiracy theories about these pipe bombs. Who left them? Why? Now that the suspect is in custody, do we know anything about the motive or whether these bombs were connected to the attack on the Capitol?
LUCAS: Well, those really are the million-dollar questions, and unfortunately, no. At this point, we don't know the answers to those. Ironically, one of the conspiracy theories that was out there, that the pipe bombs were an inside job by the FBI - that was pushed by Dan Bongino when he was a podcaster. Dan Bongino is now the deputy director of the FBI, and he got a lot of credit yesterday for this arrest. Now, Cole's expected to appear in court here in D.C. later today. And answers to a lot of these outstanding questions are most likely to come in court over the weeks and months to come as the Justice Department prosecutes this case.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
