DOJ Slams Alleged DC Pipe Bomberโs Bid To Claim Trump Pardon
The Justice Department is forcefully pushing back against a striking legal claim from the man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the eve of Jan. 6 โ that he was effectively pardoned by President Trump.
In a court filing Friday, prosecutors urged a federal judge to reject Brian Cole Jr.โs attempt to have his charges thrown out, calling his argument flatly incompatible with the โclear and unambiguous termsโ of Trumpโs sweeping Jan. 6 clemency order.
Cole, who was arrested in December 2025 after years of investigation, is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021 โ just hours before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The devices never detonated, but the FBI has said they were functional and viable, raising the stakes of a case that remained unsolved for nearly five years.
Earlier this year, Coleโs lawyers made a bold move: They argued that his actions were โinextricably and demonstrably tetheredโ to the events of Jan. 6 โ and therefore covered by Trumpโs mass pardon of people tied to the attack.
They pointed to the broad language in Trumpโs order, which applies to offenses โrelated toโ events at or near the Capitol, and noted that Cole allegedly traveled to Washington for an election protest tied to the same political moment that fueled the riot.
But the Justice Department isnโt buying it.
โThe defendant ignores that the proclamation expressly limited relief to individuals who had been โconvicted of,โ or had a โpending indictmentโ for, offenses related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6,โ U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro wrote.
That distinction, prosecutors argue, is decisive.
When Trumpโs pardon took effect on Jan. 20, 2025, Cole had not yet been charged โ putting him outside the scope of the order entirely.
โThe defendant belonged to neither category, and so the proclamation has no bearing on this case,โ Pirro wrote.
Cole was indicted weeks later, in January 2026, on charges including interstate transportation of explosives and malicious attempt to use them.
Prosecutors also made clear that even a broader reading of the pardon wouldnโt help him.
โEven if the Court somehow found, notwithstanding its text, that the proclamation could apply to this case,โ Pirro wrote, the Justice Departmentโs interpretation should still prevail as a โconsistent, reasonableโ reading by the agency tasked with enforcing it.
The clash sets up a high-stakes test of how far Trumpโs Jan. 6 pardons can stretch โ and whether conduct that happened before the riot, but is arguably connected to it, can fall under their umbrella.
For now, the Justice Departmentโs position is blunt: Not this case. Not this defendant.
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