A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon of January 6 Capitol rioters does not apply to a Virginia man accused of planting two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees the night before the 2021 insurrection.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali, an appointee of President Joe Biden, rejected arguments from attorneys for Brian Cole Jr., who sought to have his case dismissed under the pardon. Cole’s legal team had contended that the alleged conduct was “inextricably and demonstrably tethered to” the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a three-page order, Judge Ali wrote that even if Cole’s charged conduct related to the Capitol events, the pardon explicitly applies only to individuals who had been “convicted of offenses” tied to those events. “Cole had not been convicted of the conduct at issue when the President issued the pardon; indeed, he was not charged until many months after the President’s proclamation,” Ali stated.
Trump issued the pardon on his first day back in office last year, covering nearly everyone convicted in connection with the Capitol attack, effectively ending a four-year Justice Department investigation.
Prosecutors allege that Cole compiled bomb-making materials for months before placing the devices outside the political offices on the night of January 5, 2021. The FBI arrested Cole in December at his home, where he lived with his parents. He pleaded not guilty in January to federal charges of transporting and attempting to use explosives.
During FBI interviews, Cole reportedly expressed belief that the 2020 election was stolen, according to CNN. Investigators also linked his phone data to cell towers near Capitol Hill, matching security footage timestamps from the night the bombs were planted.
Cole is scheduled for a status hearing on Wednesday. A White House official previously stated that the pardon “pertained to events at or near the Capitol on January 6 and clearly does not cover this scenario.”
