Federal judge says Trump’s broad Jan. 6 pardon doesn’t apply to DC pipe bomb suspect

By Piper HudspethBlackburn, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump’s expansive pardon of January 6 rioters does not apply to a Virginia man accused of planting two pipe bombs in Washington, DC, the night before the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.

Prosecutors say Brian Cole Jr. placed bombs near the Republican and Democratic national committees’ headquarters on the night of January 5, 2021. His attorneys argued in March that Cole should be covered by Trump’s pardon because the alleged conduct is “is so inextricably and demonstrably tethered to” the events at the Capitol on January 6.

On his first day back in office last year, Trump issued a pardon to nearly every person who was convicted of attacking the US Capitol, marking the end of a sweeping four-year Justice Department probe.

In a three-page order, US District Judge Amir H. Ali, an appointee of President Joe Biden, rejected Cole’s argument that he should be included in that pardon.

“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. “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 is due back in court Wednesday for a status hearing.

When Cole’s lawyers asked the court in March to dismiss the case against him, a White House official disputed the defense team’s argument.

“The pipe bombs were placed on Jan 5. The pardon pertained to events at or near capitol on January 6 and clearly does not cover this scenario,” the official said in a statement to CNN at the time.

The FBI arrested Cole in December at his home, where he lived with his parents. He pleaded not guilty in January to federal charges of transporting and attempting to use explosives.

The FBI alleges that Cole compiled bomb-making supplies for months before leaving the viable explosive devices outside of the political offices.

During interviews with the FBI, Cole told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, CNN previously reported. Investigators also said they linked Cole’s phone data to cell towers around Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The calls and texts he made matched security footage time stamps that show how the bomber moved the evening he planted the devices, they said.

CNN’s Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.

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