Nearly five years after two pipe bombs turned up outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI finally made an arrest earlier this month. Brian J. Cole Jr., a 30-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, now faces federal charges for transporting an explosive device across state lines with the intent to kill and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosives.
But new whistleblower disclosures shared with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are raising serious questions about whether federal authorities have the right guy.
Massie explained in a thread on X that the suspect lives in a community with a notable concentration of FBI, Secret Service, and police employees. Many neighbors have observed him over the years during routine walks. His daily pattern appears limited and repetitive, centered almost entirely on walking a dog several times a day. Beyond that, neighbors report no meaningful engagement with the outside world.
As Massie relays, “He does not interact with anyone. He doesn’t wave or acknowledge others or even say hello. He does not even look at other people when he walks by.” The suspect’s demeanor is described as detached, vacant, and inwardly focused. Neighbors say he never appeared angry or agitated, and there were no outward signs of an obsession with politics or current events.
Another detail that was noted is that the suspect always wore headphones while walking. I’m not sure why this was a notable detail, but observers interpreted this as an attempt to shut out his surroundings rather than engage with them. His behavior struck neighbors as awkward and disconnected, reinforcing the belief that he suffers from a significant mental disability.
ICYMI: Democrats Go Low Every Single Time
Massie says the whistleblower emphasized that the suspect appears to live in a permanently vulnerable intellectual and emotional state. That matters because individuals with such conditions are widely understood to be susceptible to unreliable or unwarranted confessions. Neighbors also reported that the suspect rarely drove his car and showed little capacity for independent initiative. Based on these collective observations, Massie argued that the suspect “does not appear to have the mental acumen to plan, prepare, and execute a complex bombing plot by himself.”
There was something else Massie said that doesn’t make sense. On Nov. 13, the bureau conducted surveillance on the suspect’s street, yet the activity stood out to many residents rather than blending into the background. When the arrest and search were eventually conducted, neighbors were neither evacuated nor treated as if they faced a credible explosive threat. Instead, they were ordered to remain inside their homes, a decision Massie suggests is inconsistent with the claim that the suspect had been manufacturing or stockpiling bombs.
Massie ended the thread with his own conclusion: “The FBI employee disclosing this information to me doesn’t believe the FBI has arrested a person who is capable or motivated, or even interested enough in affairs outside of his own small world, to execute the J6 pipe bomb plot on his own.”
None of this is terribly convincing to me. For one thing, I’ve never heard the argument that being anti-social somehow made someone less likely to be a criminal.
Another issue here is that, according to a federal affidavit, investigators identified one checking account and six credit cards tied to Cole, which showed that in 2019 to 2020, he repeatedly bought items matching each major component used in the bombs: specific galvanized pipes and matching end caps from Home Depot, battery connectors from a niche distributor via Micro Center, white kitchen timers from Walmart, wire, steel wool, and tools like safety glasses, wire strippers, and gloves. Cellphone location data also placed Cole in the area of the RNC and DNC the day the bombs were planted. That’s pretty damning evidence.
The conflicting information raises more questions than it answers.
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