Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is calling for the resignation of FBI Director Kash Patel after a transcript of the alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber’s interrogation has been released.
The extent of the FBI’s alleged mistreatment of Brian Cole Jr. was revealed in the defendant’s motion to suppress statements he made during his custodial interrogation on Dec. 4, 2025, shortly after he was arrested.
Cole’s attorneys explain how he was under heightened physical and emotional distress during the interrogation as someone diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Based on the disorder, the defense argues his confession was involuntary and coerced.
Massie was one of the top figures who called out the government’s alleged abuse online.
“Most of the country has been ignoring this story,” he posted on X. “When it’s finally resolved, [Patel] must resign and join [former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino]. What the two of them have done to this autistic black man is inexcusable. At a minimum, they should release Cole on an ankle bracelet until the trial.”
Cole’s federal trial is set to start on Feb. 16, 2027, and it’s expected to last about two weeks. The case is being heard in Washington, D.C., where Cole allegedly planted two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The undetonated bombs were discovered by authorities and safely removed from the premises on the day of the riot.
Cole has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges against him, including charges related to domestic terrorism and the attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.
During the initial interrogation, Cole repeatedly told FBI agents that he did not commit any crime until his body and mind started getting worn down by the accusation. By that point, he relented.
“Roughly three hours into the interrogation that followed—isolated in an interview room, wrapped in a blanket, fighting the urge to vomit, and ‘stimming’ the same sentences to himself again and again—he agreed with two agents insisting that the figure in some surveillance video was him. The government will call that a voluntary confession. The video and transcript record something else,” the court filing states.
“They show the methodical dismantling of a man whose autism spectrum disorder left him unable to withstand the psychologically coercive tactics deployed against him, and who told the agents so, in real time, while they pressed him, told him his professions of innocence were criminal, and threatened to ‘drag’ his family through the same experience Mr. Cole had gone through that morning—the morning that started at gunpoint,” the document continues.
The defense defines stimming as the “self-regulating repetition characteristic of an autistic person in acute physical and emotional distress,” so a case could be made that he wasn’t in the right mental state to make a voluntary confession.
JUDGE QUESTIONS POSSIBLE ATTORNEY CONFLICT IN DC PIPE BOMBER CASE
“The allegations here are that agents stacked four coercive tactics on a suspect whose disability they watched unfold in real time and then detained him past the six-hour safe harbor for the announced purpose of continued interrogation,” Cole’s lawyers wrote. “If established, these facts would require suppression. And most of them already are established, by a video recording and transcript whose contents the government cannot dispute.”
The federal judge overseeing the case must decide whether there should be an evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress, as requested by the defendant’s counsel. If such a hearing is granted, Cole would provide testimony that sheds light on his autism spectrum disorder and whether that had any effect on his interrogation responses.