Alleged DC pipe bomber appears at detention hearing as his attorneys argue he should be released from jail

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge declined Tuesday to make an immediate decision about whether the suspected 2021 Washington, DC, pipe bomber, Brian Cole Jr., will be held in jail as he awaits trial.

“I’m sensitive to the urgency of the issue and I do intend to get a ruling out expeditiously,” Judge Matthew Sharbaugh said during the nearly two-hour hearing, noting that the issue was complicated and required more reflection and a renewed review of court filings.

At the start of the hearing, Sharbaugh, the magistrate judge presiding over the case’s preliminary issues, announced that an indictment had been returned in the case but not yet accepted by the court.

The judge explained that a grand jury in the local Superior Court, rather than the federal court, in Washington had handed up an indictment against Cole. Sharbaugh said that a separate case over this issue is in the appeals process and said he had not yet determined how that case would apply to Cole’s situation.

The Justice Department prosecutor did not explain why the US attorney’s office in Washington chose to secure an indictment in the DC Superior Court rather than before a federal grand jury.

Arguments over detention

During Tuesday’s hearing, Cole’s attorney Mario Williams argued that prosecutors had little to suggest that Cole was a danger to the community.

“We have an expert in the audience that says those devices could not explode,” Williams said. The attorney added that police had been surveilling Cole before his arrest and found nothing threatening about his routines.

Cole has been charged with placing two explosive devices near the Republican and Democratic national committee buildings on the eve of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

Prosecutors say an FBI explosives examiner “assessed that the pipe bombs were constructed using all the components necessary to explode and that they were viable explosive devices,” according to court filings.

In their filing arguing for Cole’s release, his attorneys said Cole has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder – listing those as the first two factors in arguing for pretrial release

“They’re watching him for weeks, he doesn’t do anything. He has the same routine,” Williams said. … He walks his dog he goes gets his pizza and he goes to work.”

In explaining how Cole’s family could still help monitor his actions despite not being aware of his alleged previous activity, Williams added:

“They have an autistic child with obsessive-compulsive disorder that they gave space and privacy to.” The defendant, Williams said, “could not even begin to be able to survive in prison.”

Prosecutor Charles Jones argued that Cole’s continued purchase of alleged bomb-making materials similar to those found on the January 2021 pipe bombs showed that Cole was a continued threat to the community.

Cole’s grandmother, Loretta, testified to how she could be his custodian, were he released. She told the judge that she had cameras all around her home and lived in a gated community.

When pressed by prosecutors over how the family had failed to detect Cole’s alleged bomb-making activities and plans previously, Loretta said, “We never had a reason to, but now…”

”I can make any adjustments that I need to make,” she added.

The alleged confession

During an interview with investigators following his arrest earlier this year, Cole initially denied that he had placed the bombs, prosecutors say, but later changed his tune after being shown a still image of himself on surveillance video around the time the bombs were planted.

“The defendant asked for time to process things,” prosecutors wrote.

Cole then proceeded to explain in detail how he had built the bombs, including how “he learned to make the black powder from a video game that listed the ingredients” and also watched “various science-related videos on YouTube to assist him in creating the devices,” the filing states.

Cole, when asked about why he placed the bombs, said that “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” during the 2020 election season, according to prosecutors.

He also said his interest in history spurred the idea to use pipe bombs, specifically their use during the Troubles in Ireland, the court document states.

“The defendant wanted to do something ‘to the parties’ because ‘they were in charge,’” according to the court document.

Cole denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to the Electoral College certification, which was at the center of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol the following day.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.