Judge says DNC and RNC pipe bomb suspect would not be included in Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons – One America News Network

July 7, 2026 Katherine Mosack US 0

Brian Cole Jr.'s family exit the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse on December 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Alleged January 6 pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. appeared for a hearing on charges of transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce with intent to kill, injure or intimidate individuals or unlawfully damage or destroy property. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images) — Brian Cole Jr.’s family exit the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse on December 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:59 AM – Tuesday, July 7, 2026

A judge appointed by former President Joe Biden has ruled that President Donald Trump’s pardons for those accused of unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, do not apply to a Virginia man charged with planting a pipe bomb near the Democrat and Republican parties’ headquarters.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali refused to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., arguing that Trump’s pardons, issued to more than 1,500 people on the first day of his second term, only explicitly applied to the protestors at the Capitol.

Cole had neither been charged nor convicted when Trump issued the pardons, the judge pointed out. He wasn’t taken into custody until almost a year after the pardons were issued.

Cole was arrested in early December after nearly five years of investigating the bombs placed near the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Democratic National Committee (DNC) buildings. Surveillance footage released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) showed that he planted a backpack containing an explosive next to a bench near the DNC headquarters at around 7:40 p.m. on January 5, 2021, and hid a second device in the bushes outside the RNC headquarters about 20 minutes later.

The explosives were constructed from a steel pipe, homemade black powder, kitchen timers, and hobby fuses typically used for fireworks.

Cole’s attorneys argued that he qualifies for a pardon because his alleged actions were “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events the next day at the Capitol in January 2021. They claimed he had driven to Washington, D.C., in the first place “to attend a protest concerning the outcome of the 2020 election.”

“By the government’s own telling, this is exactly the kind of case that President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Presidential Pardon was invoked to reach,” defense lawyers wrote.

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