The man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., a day before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot confessed to investigators that he became “bewildered” by the 2020 election and believed someone needed to “speak up,” according to a new memo.
The memo, unsealed on Sunday, detailed Brain Cole Jr.’s alleged confession to investigators shortly after his arrest at his Virginia home in early December.
Over multiple hours, investigators pressed Cole on his alleged motive for placing the bombs on Jan. 5, which ultimately did not detonate.
Cole began by denying that he placed the bombs, instead saying he drove to Washington on Jan. 5 to attend a protest related to the 2020 election results. While not an “an openly political person,” Cole said he began closely following the news shortly after the 2020 election, feeling “bewildered” and that “something was wrong.”
He allegedly told investigators if people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being — you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.”
“I didn’t agree with what people were doing, like just telling half the country that they — that their — that they just need to ignore it. I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I went to the protest,” Cole added, according to the memo.
But when investigators pressed him on his whereabouts and showed him video footage of the pipe bomb suspect on the night of Jan. 5, Cole later admitted to planting the two bombs.
According to prosecutors, Cole was “pretty relieved” the bombs didn’t explode, but did want to do something to both political parties because “they were in charge.” He said “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse.”
However, Cole told investigators the bombs were not related to Congress’s certification of the election results or any of the protests on Jan. 6.
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The memo comes ahead of Cole’s court appearance for his detention hearing, which is slated for Tuesday at 1 p.m.
Prosecutors were adamant on Sunday that Cole must remain detained before his trial, saying he “poses an intolerable risk of danger to the community if released.”