Thread by @realjusthuman

United States v. Cole
(J6 Pipe Bomber case)

A new filing by prosecutors states,

"Following his December 4, 2025 arrest, the defendant waived his Miranda rights and gave a detailed confession to the charged offenses."

Prosecutors filed this memo in support of their oral motion for Brian J. Cole, Jr., to be detained pending trial.

Cole has a detention hearing coming up on December 30, 2025, at 1:00 p.m.

Much of the news memo is simply restating the same information that is in the affidavit when Cole was arrested.

Thread on that here
x.com/realjusthuman/…

Video here
youtu.be/rq9NXe6yyOw?si…

But there is some new info.

A map of the Cole Jr's cellphone interactions with cell towers near the DNC and RNC.

More info on the devices.

"the FBI assessed that the two devices were both IEDs which contained a main explosive charge, a fuzing system, and a container. The FBI also assessed that the IEDs used a hard metal container (metal pipe nipples and end caps), which showed that weapon characteristics were present."

"The FBI explosives examiner assessed that the pipe bombs were constructed using all the components necessary to explode and that they were viable explosive devices."

Illustration of the devices

Spreadsheet of Cole Jr.'s purchases of components.

Other relevant purchases.

Spreadsheet of components purchased AFTER January 5, 2021.

Brian Cole Jr "reset" or "wiped" his Samsung smartphone 943 times between December 2020 and December 2025.

Including just three hours before his arrest.

Beginning in July 2022, Cole Jr. started "resetting" or "wiping" his phone at least once per week, sometimes multiple times per day.

FBI found pipe bomb components in Cole Jr's home and in his vehicle.

Cole Jr spoke with the FBI for hours after his arrest.

"During the interview, which was video-recorded, the defendant initially denied manufacturing, transporting, and planting the pipe bombs."

"According to the defendant, 'no one knows' his political views, including his family."

Some quotes from Cole Jr's interview with the FBI following his arrest:

"After approximately two hours, during which the defendant maintained that he had not placed the bombs, one of the interviewing agents asked the defendant if he wanted to end the interview.

The defendant responded that 'everything is just blank' and 'a little too much to process.'"

Agents showed Cole Jr a still image from surveillance footage of the person who planted the devices on January 5, 2021.

Cole Jr at first "stated that he did not recognize the person and had not previously seen the video."

Agents reminded Cole Jr that lying to them was an additional charge.

"the defendant paused for approximately fifteen seconds, placed his head face down on the table, and answered, 'yes.'"

Acknowledging that he did recognize the person in the surveillance footage.

Agents advised Cole Jr they could continue the interview OR end it and transport him for his initial appearance.

After 20 min of consideration, he "expressed his interest in continuing the interview and executed a written waiver to delay his presentment in court to the next day."

"Over the next approximately one and one-half hours, the defendant walked the interviewing agents in detail through his construction, transportation, and planting of the pipe bombs."

"The defendant explained that he made the black powder in the devices using charcoal, Lilly Miller sulfur dust, and potassium nitrate that he purchased from Lowes."

He learned to do this from a video game and from youtube vids.

"the kitchen timers were easier to use."

"The defendant stated that he assembled the devices in the hours before he drove to Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021...

Eventually, the defendant admitted that he did not go to Washington, D.C. to attend a protest but in fact traveled there to plant the devices."

Cole Jr set the timers on the devices to 60mins, planted them at the DNC and RNC, then left DC.

He got carryout from a Virginia restaurant on his way home.

"According to the defendant, he was not really thinking about how people would react when the bombs detonated, although he hoped there would be news about it. The defendant stated that he had not tested the devices before planting them."

"He claimed that when he learned that the devices did not detonate, he was “pretty relieved,” and asserted that he placed the devices at night because he did not want to kill people."

After he saw the stills and surveillance footage of himself planting the devices, he trashed the leftover materials.

He told agents "he did not tell anyone about the pipe bombs before planting them or in the years since."

Although he stated he never built more devices...

"he admitted that sometime after he built the pipe bombs used in this case, he purchased beaker sets and conducted another science experiment to create potassium chlorate, which he claimed was unrelated to bombmaking." 🤨

As to the motive,

"he explained that 'something just snapped' after 'watching everything, just everything getting worse.' The defendant wanted to do something 'to the parties' because 'they were in charge.'

When asked why he placed the devices at the RNC and DNC, the defendant responded, 'I really don’t like either party at this point.'"

Cole Jr stated that "the idea to use pipe bombs came from his interest in history, specifically the Troubles in Ireland. The defendant denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to the proceedings scheduled to take place on January 6."

The rest of the filing is argument for keeping Cole Jr locked up pending his trial.

I'll go over it page by page in a video tomorrow.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Cole Jr has added more attorneys to his team over the past several days.

JR Glover, Alex Little, and Zachary Lawson of the Litson law firm out of Tennessee have joined.
All are experienced criminal defense attorneys.
Glover and Little are former federal prosecutors.

litson.co