(Washington) The suspect in the investigation into the planting of homemade bombs in front of the headquarters of the two main American political parties on the eve of the assault on the Capitol in January 2021 was kept in custody on Friday during his first appearance.
Published yesterday at
The judge ordered continued detention without the possibility of parole for Brian Cole, 30, arrested Thursday in Woodbridge, Virginia, near Washington. A new hearing on his continued detention has been set for December 15.
Until his arrest, the persistent mystery about the identity and motivations of the installer of these homemade bombs, which had not exploded, fueled numerous conspiracy theories about a possible manipulation of the assault on the Capitol the next day, January 6, 2021, by supporters of Donald Trump.
PHOTO DANIEL HEUER, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
The suspect was arrested on Thursday.
Brian Cole told agents of the FBI, the federal police, that he believed the theses according to which the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, was “stolen” from the outgoing Republican president, several media reported on Friday, including NBC and CNN, shedding light on his possible motivations.
He is being prosecuted for attempted use of explosives for malicious purposes and transporting explosives to commit an act of violence.
This is the first arrest announced in more than four years in this case for which the FBI offered a reward of $500,000 in exchange for any information leading to the identification of the suspect.
Asked about his possible political motivations or a link between his actions and the assault on the Capitol, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that she could not respond as long as the investigations continued.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters, heated by his baseless accusations of electoral fraud, stormed the Capitol, the sanctuary of American democracy, to try to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
On January 20, upon his return to the White House, Donald Trump pardoned by decree some 1,250 convicted for the assault on the Capitol, commuting the sentences of 14 others and ordering a halt to the proceedings against hundreds of defendants still awaiting trial. He thus erased with a stroke of a marker the largest investigation ever carried out by the Department of Justice.
