Shortly after the arrest of Brian Cole in the 6 January 2021 Washington DC pipe bomb case, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said that the investigation into the nearly five-year-long case not only required good police personnel but also the right leader—US President Donald Trump.
Cole was arrested on Thursday morning is set to be arranged before a federal court in Washington, DC at 1 pm local time.
The case pertains to the discovery of two functional and potentially lethal pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National (Committee) on 6 January 2021, the day of the US Capitol riots. The bombs had been planted on the evening of 5 January 2021, investigations later revealed.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who announced the arrest, hailed 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 did not discover any new information...we reexamined every piece of evidence, sifted through all the data, something that the prior administration refused and failed to do!”
Subsequently, in a lengthy post on X following Cole's, Patel highlighted how the lengthy investigation was revived, and lauded law enforcement officials and others for their work in wrapping up the investigation.
‘Didn’t need evidence, just new leaders'
“When Dan Bongino and I came to the FBI in March, the pipe bomb investigation had been stalled for going on 5 years. We rebuilt it from scratch - re-running every lead, re-testing every piece of evidence, bringing in top experts, and deploying new technology to engineer the break that finally nailed the suspect,” the FBI Director wrote.
“Today is result of that outstanding 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, highlighting the role of changed leadership in bringing suspect into custody.
In follow up posts, the FBI chief said, “This FBI team rebuilt an entire investigation, re-worked the evidence, deployed new tech, and executed a plan that finally brought the pipe bomb suspect into custody. Dan Bongino led from the front, and our agents delivered.”
“This is the FBI doing its job, relentlessly and without excuses,” Patel declared.
Further, in an interview with New York Post following Cole's arrest, the FBI chief explained further, saying “Our team re-examined the case from the ground up after the previous leadership spent four years with no success."
“We engineered this investigation, built the evidentiary trail, and executed the search warrants that finally brought this individual into custody. This is what a focused, disciplined Bureau delivers for the American people,” he told NY Post.
Earlier during the press conference, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino had also heaped praise on Trump, saying, “This is what it’s like when you work for a president who tells you to go get the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement.”
