Trump’s Jan. – A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump’s broad Jan. 6 clemency does not protect Brian J. Cole Jr., a Virginia man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
For Brian J. Cole Jr., the question was simple: do Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 supporters reach his case? On Monday, a federal judge answered no—meaning the prosecution can move forward even though Cole’s arrest came after the president’s broad act of clemency.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali refused to dismiss the case against Cole. ruling that President Donald Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters apply only to people who were convicted of crimes tied to the January 6 attack. Ali said Cole had not been charged, let alone convicted, when Trump issued the pardons.
The decision lands at a time when Trump’s early actions in his second term rewrote the federal justice landscape around the Capitol riot. On the first day of his second term in the White House. Trump pardoned. commuted prison sentences. and ordered the dismissal of cases for more than 1. 500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
Cole’s case is built on a different kind of alleged threat—one that prosecutors say existed on the night before the riot even began. Cole was arrested nearly a year after Trump’s sweeping clemency. Prosecutors accuse him of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington. D.C. on the eve of January 6. 2021. The devices did not detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.
Court filings and statements from prosecutors say Cole gave a confession after his arrest. He told FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. and that “something just snapped.” Investigators identified him using phone records and other evidence.
Ali, a federal judge nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, concluded in a three-page order that the scope of Trump’s pardons was narrower than Cole’s defense argument.
The broader setting for Cole’s argument has been the political storm surrounding the Capitol riot. Trump, a Republican, promoted baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him. On Jan. 6. supporters who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House joined a mob’s attack on the Capitol. disrupting the joint session of Congress as lawmakers certified President Biden’s electoral victory.
Cole is expected back in court on Wednesday for a status hearing. A trial date for his case has not yet been scheduled.
Trump pardons Jan. 6 rioters pipe bombs Brian J. Cole Jr. Amir Ali federal judge RNC DNC Capitol riot Stop the Steal