The Virginia man accused of planting pipe bombs at the nation's capital on Jan. 5, 2021, is requesting a conditional release from jail as his attorney cites his autism diagnosis.
Federal prosecutors allege that Brian Cole, 30, is the man who planted explosive devices at the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters the night before rioters swarmed the Capitol. He has been in custody since he was arrested Dec. 4, when he was charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.
Cole has not yet entered a plea.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh declined to rule on whether Cole would be released Tuesday, telling both parties there were “important arguments under consideration.” Neither Cole nor the several members of his family at the hearing reacted to Sharbaugh’s announcement.
Cole, wearing a khaki jumpsuit, spent much of the hearing sitting quietly and attentively as the parties argued, occasionally adjusting his glasses or fidgeting slightly in his chair. His attention was on the judge throughout the proceedings.
In a federal court filing Tuesday morning, Cole's attorneys said he has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The filing described his diagnosis as a mild form of autism.
Several character reference letters from people who say they’ve known Cole for years were included in the filing.
“While I understand the seriousness of the charges against Brian Cole Jr., these charges seem totally out of character from the Brian Cole Jr. that I have observed over many years,” a person who has known Cole for 22 years wrote. The person's name was redacted.
Cole's attorneys wrote that the government has not presented any evidence that suggests evasive conduct or resistance to law enforcement. They argued that Cole doesn’t pose an ongoing threat to the community and that he is happy to comply with all court-ordered restrictions.
Loretta Cole Donnettee, his grandmother, also testified Tuesday that she would be willing to take Cole into her home for monitoring. She told the judge that her house was in a gated community and that there were cameras "everywhere."
Cole has kept the same job with his family’s bail bonds business over several years and hasn’t moved or tried to flee, his attorneys said.
“The government argues that Mr. Cole spent nearly five years trying to evade detection,” the filing said. “Not true: Mr. Cole lived with his parents the entire time, never moved, and followed his same routine daily.”
In a motion filed Sunday, the government alleged that Cole wore a mask and gloves the night he planted the bombs and that he wiped down the bombs with disinfectant. The government said Cole also performed factory resets of his phone more than 900 times from December 2020 to the day he was arrested.
Federal prosecutors have urged a judge to keep Cole in detention, alleging that Cole felt "extreme acts of violence” were justified because of his dislike of both political parties. The motion said the man told FBI agents that “something just snapped” after he had watched “everything getting worse.”
He directed his ire at the Democratic and Republican parties because “they were in charge,” Cole told agents, according to the government filing.
NBC News previously reported, based on sources familiar with the matter, Cole confessed to having planted the pipe bombs in an interview with FBI agents and that he believed in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Prosecutors confirmed in the filing Sunday that Cole told agents he thought it looked like “something was wrong” with the election and that Trump supporters who believed the election was being “tampered with” shouldn’t be called “conspiracy theorists,” “bad people,” “Nazis,” or “fascists.”
He is alleged to have told agents that he didn’t align politically with his family members and that he didn’t tell them he was “going to a protest in support of [then President] Trump.”
Cole is alleged to have been inspired to use pipe bombs by his interest in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the sectarian war between Catholics and Protestants that escalated into violence in the 1970s. The violence, which included bombing attacks, went on for three decades.
According to the government's filing, Cole didn't test the devices before he planted them, and they failed to go off as planned.
“Ultimately, it was luck, not lack of effort, that the defendant failed to detonate one or both of his devices and that no one was killed or maimed due to his actions,” the government filing said. “Indeed, the defendant admitted that he set both devices to detonate 60 minutes after he placed them."
The judge also told attorneys Tuesday that has yet to decide whether to accept an indictment against Cole that was handed down Monday upon learning that the government used a grand jury in the D.C. Superior Court rather than federal court. He cited a separate D.C. criminal case with the same jurisdiction issue that is in the appeals process.
The D.C. Superior Court grand jury indicted Cole, Sharbaugh said, on the same charges listed in the criminal complaint.
