A federal judge has refused to throw out the criminal case against the man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. The judge concluded that President Trump’s broad pardons for Capitol riot defendants were “expressly limited” to people already convicted for conduct tied to that day.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali rejected a request from attorneys for Brian Cole Jr., who argued that the allegations against him were “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events of Jan. 6 and therefore should be dismissed.
Cole’s defense team cited prosecutors’ filings stating that Cole told the FBI he traveled to Washington, D.C., for a protest connected to the 2020 election, arguing that this placed him within “the same political controversy that animated the January 6 crowd.” His lawyers also emphasized that while the bombs were allegedly left on Jan. 5, they were not found until the afternoon of Jan. 6.
“The Pardon—like it or not—applies to Mr. Cole, based on the ordinary and plain meaning of the Pardon’s language as applied to the relevant facts in this case,” Cole’s attorneys wrote.
The Justice Department countered in its filings that the pardon’s language does not extend to the conduct Cole is accused of, a position Judge Ali accepted.
“Even assuming that the conduct Cole is charged with is ‘related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,’ the pardon is expressly limited to people who had been ‘convicted of offenses’ related to those events,” Ali wrote in a three-page opinion issued Monday. “Cole had not been convicted of the conduct at issue when the President issued the pardon; indeed, he was not charged until many months after the President’s proclamation.”
Cole was indicted last year on charges of interstate transportation of explosives and malicious attempt to use explosives, nearly five years after the devices were planted. Although the bombs never exploded, the FBI has said they were functional. In April, federal prosecutors expanded the case by adding terrorism and weapons-of-mass-destruction charges.
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Cole has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Mr. Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons, issued in the first hours of his return to the White House last year, granted clemency to around 1,500 rioters accused or convicted of violations ranging from trespassing to assaulting police.
