00:00Nearly five years after pipe bombs were planted outside the Republican and Democratic National Committees ahead of the January 6th Capitol riot,
00:07the FBI has finally arrested a suspect, closing an embarrassing chapter for the federal agency.
00:13Sources confirm with the Post that Brian Cole of Virginia was arrested Thursday morning
00:17and has been accused of planting the bombs which came within feet of Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
00:24They traveled to and from the DNC headquarters on South Capitol Street on January 6th.
00:30Helicopter footage captured by Fox shows FBI officials storming Cole's Woodbridge, Virginia home.
00:36Sources told the Post that investigators were looking into his possible connection with some form of quote anarchist writings or leanings.
00:43The specifics were not immediately known.
00:45One neighbor said the 30-year-old who lives in the suburban cul-de-sac was antisocial, shunned interaction, and doted on a pet chihuahua.
00:53Charges in the case have yet to be made public.
00:56Surveillance footage of the night of January 5th, 2021, showed a person planting what investigators called quote,
01:02viable explosive devices at the headquarters of the two major parties.
01:07The footage showed the suspect carrying a backpack and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, mask, gloves, glasses, and a pair of Nike Air Max SpeedTurf sneakers.
01:16The dangerous devices were discovered approximately 17 hours later, around the same time Congress convened to count the 2020 electoral votes.
01:25A session which was suspended for several hours after supporters of President Trump broke into the Capitol and stormed the House and Senate chambers.
01:33An explosive device with a timer and wires was also found near the Republican National Committee office on the same day.
01:40The FBI has long been castigated by lawmakers for the lack of progress in identifying a perpetrator.
01:46A report released in January of this year by Republican reps Barry Loudermilk and Thomas Massey assessed that quote,
01:52Little meaningful progress had been made in the pipe bomb investigation and charged that the feds had quote,
01:59refused to provide substantive updates to Congress.
02:02The lawmakers report added that despite the investigation having promising data and several persons of interest,
02:08the FBI began diverting resources away from the pipe bomb investigation by the end of February 2021.
02:14The absence of a break in the case, or even clarification on whether the suspect was a man or woman,
02:20led to fervent speculation, mainly among conservatives and even some Republican lawmakers,
02:26that the failed bombing was the work of a far-left terrorist,
02:30whose actions would cause embarrassment to a Biden administration,
02:33whose Justice Department was pursuing charges against hundreds of January 6 rioters.
02:38Dan Bongino, who is now the FBI's deputy director,
02:41has even added to that speculation over the years on his popular podcast.
02:45I told you when Donald Trump won, did I not go back and find the videos yourself,
02:50that there are going to be people in the FBI who are trying to protect their jobs.
02:54And they're going to start releasing information now about the bomber,
02:57which was an inside job, no question in my mind.
03:00It was clearly some Democrat operative trying to stop Republicans from questioning the January 6, 2020 election.
03:10After arriving at the bureau in March,
03:12Bongino made the case a top priority, writing on X last month.
03:16We brought in new personnel to take a look at the case.
03:19We flew in police officers and detectives working as TFOs, task force officers, to review FBI work.
03:25We conducted multiple internal reviews, held countless in-person and SVTC meetings with investigative team members.
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