March 17, 2026, 2:11 p.m. ET
Lawyers for Brian Cole, the 30-year-old man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington in 2021, have asked that the case be dismissed thanks to President Donald Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 defendants.
In a March 16 filing, Cole’s defense team contended that his accused actions were fundamentally the same as those committed by Jan. 6 participants who have been pardoned by Trump, saying that Cole should also be covered by the same pardons “as a matter of law.”
Though Cole’s lawyers maintain his innocence, the filing argued that, “By the government’s own telling, this is exactly the kind of case that President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Presidential Pardon was invoked to reach.”
Brian Jerome Cole Jr. of Northern Virginia was arrested in December 2025 and charged with placing improvised explosives near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees on the night of Jan. 5, 2021. The explosives did not detonate.
Cole’s lawyers said that, by the standards stated by the government, Cole’s alleged crime qualifies for a pardon because he drove to D.C. “to attend a protest concerning the outcome of the 2020 election in support of then‑President Trump.” He allegedly placed the devices on the eve of the January 6 certification of the electoral vote, and two House committees later classified the bombs as “a serious security failure associated with January 6.”
The former Capitol Police chief likewise testified that the devices were “part of a coordinated plan related to the attack on the Capitol,” said the court documents.
“On the government’s own narrative, Mr. Cole’s alleged conduct is not at the margins of the Pardon; the alleged conduct sits at its center,” said the filing.
The White House did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Trump pardons apply, says defense
The second section of Trump’s broad pardons issued in January 2025 specifies that the order would “grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Cole’s accused actions fall squarely under this umbrella, said his lawyers, as the government has already defined the placement of the bombs as being directly related to the attack on the Capitol and motivated by the same grievances.
The documents cited Kenneth Harrelson and David Dempsey specifically, two since-pardoned Jan. 6 defendants. Dempsey, called “one of the most violent” offenders by federal prosecutors, was sentenced to 20 years after he “viciously assaulted and injured police officers defending the Lower West Terrace Tunnel with a variety of implements he refashioned as weapons,” according to court records.
He was specifically named in the first section of Trump’s pardons, along with Harrelson, who was convicted of a felony after he transported firearms and ammunition to the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021. He was pardoned because his conduct was related to the events of Jan. 6.
“If Harrelson received a commuted sentence for transporting firearms and ammunition for use against our government, then the government seems to be wasting our time trying to convict Mr. Cole for allegedly transporting explosive materials to the D.C. area,” argued Cole’s lawyers.
Cole was charged with one count of unlawfully transporting an explosive device with a plan either to kill, injure, or intimidate a person or to unlawfully destroy property, and a second count of malicious destruction or attempt to destroy with an explosive device. He has remained in custody ahead of his trial, despite defense motions to release him due to his autism diagnosis, according to court documents.
