Overview
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ruled there are no conditions that would reasonably assure community safety, rejecting release to home confinement with GPS monitoring.
- Prosecutors say Brian Cole Jr. confessed to constructing and placing the devices and said he hoped they would detonate and generate news coverage.
- Investigators tied Cole to the 2021 placements using cellphone, vehicle and purchase records and say he repeatedly reset his phone and continued buying bomb components after Jan. 6.
- The FBI assessed the pipe bombs as viable; they were found on Jan. 6, 2021 near the RNC and DNC headquarters and did not explode.
- Cole faces two federal charges carrying potential sentences totaling about 30 years, has not entered a plea, and a dispute over using a local Superior Court grand jury for the indictment remains pending.