WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested a suspect five years after an unidentified person placed two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington.
Agents arrested Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, on explosive charges. Calls to relatives of Cole listed in public records were not immediately returned.
The mystery behind the person’s identity has bedeviled law enforcement and helped fuel conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021, and the Capitol riot by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Here's what to know about the arrest:
The FBI and Justice Department declined to elaborate on what led them to the suspect. But authorities attributed the arrest to a reinvigorated investigation and a fresh analysis of already collected evidence and data.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was no new tip or witness that led officials to Cole. “Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” she said.
Investigators have, over the years, sought the public’s help in identifying a person shown in surveillance video taken the night before the riot.
They struggled to determine answers to basic questions, including the person’s gender and motive. They didn't know whether the act had a clear connection to the riot at the Capitol a day later, when supporters of Trump stormed the building in a bid to halt the certification of the Republicans’ 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Law enforcement officials used credit purchases of bomb-making materials, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to zero in on Cole, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
His bank account and credit card information showed he bought materials in 2019 and 2020 consistent with those used to make the pipe bombs, according to court papers. This included galvanized pipes and white kitchen-style timers, according to the affidavit. The purchases continued even after the devices were placed.
The two explosive devices found at the scenes were each roughly 1 foot (0.3 meters) long and packed with gunpowder and metal, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
Cole owns a 2017 Nissan Sentra with a Virginia license plate, the affidavit says. Around 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, Cole’s vehicle drove past a license plate reader less than a half mile from where the person who placed the devices was first spotted on foot around 7:34 p.m. that night, the document says.
Surveillance video showed the person wearing a light sweatshirt, dark pants and sneakers, with a dark backpack slung over one shoulder. Investigators have long said the gait suggested the person was a man, but their face was obscured by a surgical mask and a hood.
Investigators focused some attention on the suspect’s shoes, believed to be Nike Air Max Speed Turfs. Nike told investigators thousands of pairs had been distributed through more than two dozen retailers and so agents filed subpoenas for credit card records from Foot Locker and other chains to narrow down potential buyers.
Authorities didn’t disclose why they think Cole may have placed the explosives at the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees.
Other questions also remain, including whether the act was connected to the assault on the Capitol the following day by Trump’s supporters.
Cole lived with his mother and other family members in a five-bedroom house on a quiet Virginia cul-de-sac about 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) south of the U.S. Capitol. He has no criminal record and was not registered to vote.
One of four children, he worked in the office of his father, a bail bondsman. His mother works as a realtor.
A high school classmate who lived in the same neighborhood and rode the bus with Cole described him as friendly but said he didn’t speak much.
“He didn’t stand out,” said the classmates, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for having their name associated with the suspect in a politically charged criminal case. “As far as I remember, he was well-behaved and quiet.”
Court records show Cole’s parents divorced in October 2020, just a couple of months before authorities allege he planted the bombs.
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alana Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo, Michael Biesecker and Brian Witte contributed to this report.
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks at the podium during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. Looking on from left is Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, ATF Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Darren Cox. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
An FBI truck departs the street where the FBI made an arrest and are investigating a house in Woodbridge, Va., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A FBI agent enters the garage of the house where they made an arrest, in Woodbridge, Va., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s effort to install political loyalists as top federal prosecutors has run into a legal buzz saw lately, with judges ruling that his handpicked U.S. attorneys for New Jersey, eastern Virginia, Nevada and Los Angeles were all serving unlawfully.
On Thursday, another federal judge heard an argument by New York Attorney General Letitia James that the administration also twisted the law to make John Sarcone the acting U.S. attorney for northern New York.
James, a Democrat, is challenging Sarcone's authority to oversee a Justice Department investigation into regulatory lawsuits she filed against Trump and the National Rifle Association. It's one of several arguments she is making to block subpoenas issued as part of the probe, which her lawyers say is part of a campaign of baseless investigations and prosecutions of Trump's perceived enemies.
Her attorney Hailyn Chen argued in court that since Sarcone lacks legitimate authority to act as U.S. attorney, legal steps taken by him in that capacity — like the subpoenas — are unlawful. In response to a question from U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, Chen said Sarcone should be disqualified from the investigation and the office.
“Sarcone exercised power that he did not lawfully possess,” Chen told the judge.
Justice Department lawyers say Sarcone was appointed properly and the motion to block the subpoenas should be denied. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Belliss argued that disqualifying Sarcone would be “drastic and extreme.”
“We don't think that's a proper remedy,” Belliss said.
Schofield, after peppering both attorneys with questions, did not say when she would rule.
The fight in New York and other states is largely over the legality of unorthodox strategies the Trump administration has adopted to appoint prosecutors seen as unlikely to get confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The hearing came a week after a federal judge in Virginia dismissed indictments brought there against James and former FBI Director James Comey. That judge concluded that the interim U.S. attorney who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department is expected to appeal.
The Justice Department went back to the grand jury in Virginia on Thursday seeking a new indictment against James on mortgage fraud allegations, but the panel rejected it, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.
On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, is disqualified from serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.
Under federal law, the president's nominees for U.S. attorney must be confirmed by the Senate. If a position is vacant, the U.S. attorney general can appoint someone temporarily, but that appointment expires after 120 days. If that time period elapses, judges in the district can either keep the interim U.S. attorney or appoint someone of their own choosing.
Sarcone's appointment didn't follow that path.
Trump hasn't nominated anyone to serve as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Sarcone to serve as the interim U.S. attorney in March. When his 120-day term elapsed, judges in the district declined to keep him in the post.
Bondi then took the unusual step of appointing Sarcone as a special attorney, then designated him first assistant U.S. attorney for the district, a maneuver federal officials say allows him to serve as an acting U.S. attorney.
Chen called it an abuse of executive power.
The New York subpoenas seek records related to a civil case James filed against Trump over alleged fraud in his personal business dealings and records from a lawsuit involving the National Rifle Association and two senior executives.
Belliss argued in court that the U.S. attorney general has broad authority to appoint attorneys within her department and to delegate her functions to those attorneys. Belliss said that even if Sarcone is not properly holding the office of acting U.S. attorney, he can still conduct grand jury investigations as a special attorney.
Sarcone was part of Trump’s legal team during the 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the U.S. General Services Administration as the regional administrator for the Northeast and Caribbean during Trump’s first term.
Habba also served as an interim U.S. attorney. When her appointment expired, New Jersey judges replaced her with a career prosecutor who had served as her second-in-command. Bondi then fired that prosecutor and renamed Habba as acting U.S. attorney.
A similar dynamic is playing out in Nevada, where a federal judge disqualified the Trump administration’s pick to be U.S. attorney there. And a federal judge in Los Angeles disqualified the acting U.S. attorney in Southern California from several cases after concluding he had stayed in the job longer than allowed by law.
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Olivia Diaz in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.
FILE - New York Attorney General, Letitia James, speaks after pleading not guilty outside the United States District Court Oct. 24, 2025, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/John Clark, File)
John Sarcone, acting U.S. attorney for northern New York, speaks at a news conference after an immigration raid in Albany, NY, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Hill)
