FBI’s Bongino no longer claims DC pipe bomb was ‘an inside job’; suspect said to be pro-Trump
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino brushed off questions about his past claims that the FBI had covered up the identity of the person who placed pipe bombs outside of political party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021.
In a Dec. 4 interview following the arrest and identification of a man accused of being the would-be bomber, Fox News’ Sean Hannity reminded Bongino, his former colleague, of his past social media and podcast comments. Bongino said the FBI was “pretty comfortable we have our guy.”
“Listen I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions,” Bongino said. “That’s clear. And one day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
On Dec. 4, the Justice Department announced in a news conference they had arrested Brian Jerome Cole Jr., 30, of Northern Virginia. [Continue reading…]
The man charged with planting pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic national party headquarters before the Jan. 6 Capitol riots told the FBI he supported Donald Trump and believed Trump won the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with his interview.
Brian Cole Jr., 30, who was arrested Thursday at his family home in a Northern Virginia exurb of Washington and criminally charged, confessed to the FBI that he planted the bombs near the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, according to two sources familiar with Cole’s interview who requested anonymity to speak about a sensitive ongoing investigation.
Investigators also found social media posts in which the suspect appeared to express anarchist leanings, complicating their efforts to determine a clear motive, the sources said. But they found no evidence that he colluded with militant organizations or with any Trump supporters who organized the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the sources said. [Continue reading…]