Shortly after the arrest of Brian Cole in the January 6, 2021 Washington DC pipe bomb case, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said that investigating the nearly five-year-old case required not only good police personnel, but also the right leader – US President Donald Trump.
Cole was arrested Thursday morning and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Washington, DC at 1 p.m. local time.
The case involves the discovery of two functional and potentially lethal pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (the Committee) on January 6, 2021, the day of the riots at the US Capitol. The bombs were planted on the evening of January 5, 2021, an investigation later revealed.
Read also | What was the January 6th pipe bomb case and who is Brian Cole? — Everything you need to know
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who announced the arrests, praised the “good” work done by the FBI under Patel, saying, “This cold case languished for four years until Kash Patel and (Deputy Director) Dan Bongino came to the FBI … There was no new tip, there was no new witness — just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work.”
Meanwhile, Patel highlighted the difference between the Trump and Biden administrations: “We have not discovered any new information…we have reviewed every piece of evidence, discussed all the data, something that the previous administration refused to do!”
Subsequently, in a lengthy post on X that followed Cole’s, Patel highlighted how the lengthy investigation had been revived and praised law enforcement officials and others for their work to close the investigation.
“I didn’t need evidence, just new leaders”
“When Dan Bongin and I came to the FBI in March, the pipe bomb investigation had been on hold for 5 years. We rebuilt it from the ground up – re-running every lead, re-testing every piece of evidence, bringing in top experts and deploying new technology to create the breakthrough that finally nailed the suspect,” the FBI director wrote.
“Today is the result of that excellent work. We didn’t need new evidence – just new leaders and a new president (Donald Trump) willing to let good cops be cops,” Patel said, emphasizing the role of changed leadership in bringing suspects into custody.
Read also | Scenes outside Brian Cole’s home go viral as FBI arrests pipe bomb Jan. 6
In subsequent posts, the FBI chief said: “This FBI team rebuilt the entire investigation, reworked the evidence, deployed new technology and executed a plan that finally brought the pipe bomb suspect into custody. Dan Bongino led from the front and our agents arrived.”
“This is an FBI that does its job relentlessly and without excuses,” Patel said.
Furthermore, in an interview with the New York Post following Cole’s arrest, the FBI chief further explained that “Our team re-examined the case from the ground up after the previous lead spent four years without success.”
“We created this investigation, built a trail of evidence and executed search warrants that ultimately brought this man into custody. That’s what a focused, disciplined office provides for the American people,” he told the NY Post.
Earlier during the press conference, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino also praised Trump, saying, “That’s what it’s like when you work for a president who tells you to go after the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things that aren’t law enforcement.”
