One of Jan. 6’s enduring mysteries, that of who planted pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC, has, according to the DOJ, been solved. Prosecutors charged Brian Cole, a Virginia man, over the incident; per a Sunday filing in his case, he confessed to FBI agents after his arrest.
But there’s another question that persists: how will the MAGAfied DOJ deal with Cole’s motive in the case?
The initial indictment was notably silent on what Cole may have believed he was accomplishing by allegedly planting pipe bombs on Jan. 5. An affidavit said agents had tied him to the area via cell phone tower tracking. His purchases in the days and weeks before included components that matched those used in the bombs.
But, some skeptics noted after the initial charges dropped, the initial charges omitted any evidence the FBI may have collected around Cole’s communications before Jan. 6, or any claim around Cole’s motive.
That’s changed with a Sunday detention memo, which offers a dramatic retelling of how Cole purportedly confessed under questioning from FBI agents.
At first, the memo says, Cole denied that he planted the bombs.
But after more questioning, a reminder that it’s a crime to lie to federal agents, and after being prompted with an image of a pair of sneakers that the suspect that day wore and video footage of the bomber, Cole purportedly admitted that it was him.
From there, prosecutors said, Cole walked agents through the logistics of how he built and planted the bombs. He watched YouTube videos and consulted a video game on how to make black powder, the incendiary element in the pipe bombs, and used Google Maps to find a place to plant the explosives, the memo said. Cole, it continues, tried to cover his tracks: he used disinfectant wipes to scrub the pipe bombs, and later wiped his phone 943 times before his arrest this year.
Cole told the FBI that he believed conspiracy theories holding that the 2020 election was stolen.
If people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being – you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down,” the memo quotes Cole as saying.
The question of how motive applies to political violence is the focus of a lot of debate among people who monitor these cases and hope to prevent them. Often, former DHS counterterrorism officials told TPM earlier this year, extreme ideologies are a means for people with other issues to “self-medicate,” potentially serving as a pretext for an act that they may have already wanted to commit.
That academic discussion, of course, ignores the two-time presidency of Donald Trump, who encouraged violence on Jan. 6 and continues to use the bully pulpit (and powers of office) to stoke violence against his opponents.
It’s a fact that prosecutors tried to dance around in the detention memo.
When the FBI agents returned to question Cole about his motive, prosecutors said, Cole remarked that he placed the bombs at the RNC and DNC because he doesn’t “like either party at this point.” He added that the idea partly came from research into The Troubles in Northern Ireland; Cole, prosecutors said, “denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to the proceedings scheduled to take place on January 6.”
The DOJ is increasingly redirecting its counterterrorism efforts at left-wing groups, including “Antifa,” using the catch-all term to cover a broad range of conduct and views associated with its political enemies. In a December 4 memo to federal law enforcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi cited “extreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti American sentiment” as motivating possible domestic terrorists.
It’s a view that puts ideology first. With Cole, the DOJ struck a different chord. The fear going forward, prosecutors said, wasn’t political violence; rather, it was that he might “again resort to violence to express his frustration with the world around him.”
If people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with… then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.”
Like, you know, by trying to overthrow the election. Or, like, by planting pipe bombs. You know, just to calm things down.
Everything from this DOJ can be assumed to fundamentally strike the same chord: Corruption; pleasing Benedict Donald while covering their own asses (preferably with a profit).
That’s pretty much it, the rest is a PR matter.
The bomber will either be identified as Antifa in some way or quietly dispensed with in some manner so as not to embarrass the primal cause.
He’s a Trumper. Antifa always wipes 944 times.
Have the false flag accusations begun yet?
I think we all know who to blame here: Hillary Clinton.
Is the pope Catholic? (Don’t ask Katie Miller.)