Family defends alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber amid legal fight: 'He’s a good person'
Exclusive: Family defends alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber amid legal fight
In a FOX 5 exclusive, the family and attorney of the man accused of planting pipe bombs on January 6 argue that President Trump’s sweeping pardon of rioters should apply to him, as courts continue to deny his release ahead of trial.
WASHINGTON - The family of Brian Cole, Jr., the so-called Jan. 6 pipe bomber, is speaking out for the first time.
Cole’s lawyer also spoke with FOX 5 on Thursday, after telling the court that President Donald Trump's sweeping Jan. 6 pardon applies to him.
The backstory:
Brian Cole, Jr., is accused of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Committee buildings in D.C. on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Both were discovered before they were detonated.
According to an FBI affidavit, investigators used credit card records, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to identify Cole.
Cole was subsequently arrested in early December 2025, and prosecutors say he confessed to placing the devices outside the RNC and DNC headquarters just hours before a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol.
They say he told investigators he hoped the explosives would detonate and "hoped there would be news about it."
After his arrest, Cole told investigators he believed someone needed to "speak up" for people who thought the 2020 election was stolen and that he targeted both political parties because they were "in charge," according to prosecutors.
The argument:
Mario Williams is the attorney representing Brian Cole, Jr.
They talked about whether race is an issue in who gets pardoned and who doesn't.
He says the language of Trump’s mass pardon for Jan. 6 participants legally applies to Cole.
The pardon applies to all individuals who were "convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," and it dismissed "all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
The challenge:
David Dempsey viciously assaulted and injured police officers who were defending the Capitol on Jan. 6. Dempsey was sentenced to 20 years, but he was released as part of a sweeping pardon on day one of Trump's second term.
Williams argues that if the pardon applies to people like Dempsey, it should apply to Cole too.
The pardon power explicitly belongs to the president in the Constitution. The Supreme Court calls the power nearly "unlimited."
Williams may have an uphill battle if the president does not want his pardon to apply to Cole as there is no precedent for anyone who, like Cole, was indicted after Trump's pardon and wants it to apply now.
"The great thing about the law is the framing of an issue. I don’t frame it that way," Williams said. "I see it as a federal court saying, ‘hey, you have the right to issue a pardon. We have the right to determine the scope so it is applied evenly and distributively. You cannot arbitrarily come in — I don’t care what you say your authority is — once you issue it, once you start letting people off, then we have the right to determine the scope.’"
"If that determination is saying that this doesn’t apply or it does apply, that’s our determination as the court," Williams went on to say.
Dig deeper:
Meantime, Williams says that Cole remains close to his family while behind bars in Virginia, talking to his parents and grandmother nearly every day.
"The way the media is portraying him and the way people out there are out there portraying him is 100% false. It's nothing like they're trying to portray him to be," Brian Cole, Sr., said. "He's not a monster in no way, shape or form."
Family said Cole may be on the spectrum, noting that he sometimes had a hard time being social.
"I love him, and I'm sorry he's going through what he's going through, and I wish that he would open up and talk more," mom Delicia Cole said. "But myself, as his mom, knew that he probably was on the autistic spectrum."
"He just didn’t like to go outside or hangout," He doesn’t communicate very well with people, you know. So, he just kind of stays to himself," his grandmother, Loretta Cole-Donnette told FOX 5.
But they say he’s kind and cares for his family.
"He’s a good person. Very respectable," Cole’s grandfather, Earl Donnette said. "Very courteous."
Two D.C. judges have denied Cole's release ahead of trial. He is currently appealing the issue to the D.C. Circuit.