WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for those involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack cannot be applied to a Virginia man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the national headquarters of both major political parties the night before the riot.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali denied a motion to throw out the case against Brian J. Cole Jr. on Monday, determining that Trump’s blanket clemency for January 6 participants explicitly covered only individuals who had already been convicted of crimes tied to that day’s events. Ali pointed out in his three-page ruling that Cole had not even been charged at the time Trump issued the pardons, let alone convicted of anything.
On the opening day of his second term, Trump wiped out what had been the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history, pardoning, commuting sentences, and ordering the dismissal of charges for more than 1,500 people who had been charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Cole was taken into custody nearly a year after that broad act of clemency. He stands accused of leaving two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the evening of January 5, 2021. Law enforcement officers found the devices on January 6 before they could detonate.
According to prosecutors, Cole admitted to the crimes after his arrest, telling FBI agents he had felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election and that “something just snapped.” Investigators also used phone records and other evidence to build their case against him.
Cole’s defense attorneys argued their client should be covered by the pardon because his alleged actions are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to what happened near the Capitol on January 6. “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,” the defense team wrote in court filings.
Prosecutors pushed back, arguing Trump’s pardons have no relevance to Cole’s situation since the presidential proclamation only applies to those who were either convicted of or facing a pending indictment for Capitol riot-related offenses. They also argued that even if the proclamation could somehow apply, the Justice Department’s interpretation of the order should be given deference as the agency responsible for administering it.
Judge Ali was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Trump, a Republican, had promoted unfounded claims that Democrats had stolen the 2020 presidential election. Supporters who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on January 6 later joined the mob that stormed the Capitol, interrupting Congress’s certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
Cole is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a status hearing. No trial date has been set in his case.
