The White House said President Donald Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6, 2021, defendants don’t apply to what the Department of Justice has referred to as the “January 6 pipe bomb case.”
A White House official told Scripps News Brian J. Cole would not be protected by the president’s pardon of people who were affiliated with crimes at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, because Cole is accused of placing the pipe bombs the prior day.
“The pipe bombs were placed on January 5,” the unnamed official wrote in an email. “The pardon pertained to events at or near (the) Capitol on January 6 and clearly does not cover this scenario."
Pardon History
President Trump issued a pardon on January 20, 2025, to all individuals “convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
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In a motion filed this week, Cole’s defense attorneys argued that a pardon should also apply to their client, who is awaiting trial and has not yet been convicted on charges that he planted two explosive devices.
“Mr. Cole maintains his innocence. For this motion, however, the critical point is how the government itself describes his alleged conduct – when it occurred, where it occurred, and what it was allegedly about,” a motion filed by attorneys Mario B. Williams and John Shoreman said.
The dates in question
Cole was arrested in 2025, several years after authorities said he had placed explosive devices at Democratic and Republican headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.
Surveillance video from the incident captured a person planting the pipe bombs at the political offices on January 5, 2021.
The explosives were not discovered, however, until 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,” Cole’s filing said.
Cole’s attorneys argued that the government repeatedly linked Cole’s alleged crimes to the events of January 6, which are covered by the pardon.
“The former Capitol Police Chief even testified that the devices were ‘part of a coordinated plan related to the attack on the Capitol,’” they argued.
Law professor gives insight
“What (the defense) is trying to do is take advantage of the breadth of (the pardon) ... President Trump issued on his very first day in office,” said Mark Osler, law professor at the University of St. Thomas.
He called the preparation of the pardon “hurried.”
“It’s not such a great job of drafting, frankly, to say that I’m granting a pardon to anyone who was convicted of events in or around the Capitol on that given day,” Osler said. “Potentially, it could cover someone who did a carjacking behind the Capitol that day.”
This geographic language, however, may not play in the defense’s favor, Osler said. One could argue the Republican and Democratic national offices are not "right there by the Capitol,” he said.
Osler said the fact that the pipe bombs were in place ahead of January 6, which is the date mentioned in the pardon, could also present an uphill battle for Cole’s team.
“I think it’s unlikely to succeed for the defense, quite frankly,” he said.
Osler said it is possible that the president could come out and further clarify who, specifically, he intended to be pardoned, but there is also a “clarification mechanism” built into the pardon itself by allowing the attorney general to issue the pardon certificates.
“I think the intention was that that group (to be pardoned) would be defined by who the attorney general sent a certificate of pardon to,” said Osler.
Prosecutors’ filings
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on this case.
In court filings, however, federal prosecutors claimed Cole admitted to planting the devices but said he denied that they were intended to disrupt the vote certification the following day.
They also said Cole initially told investigators he went to Washington, D.C., to attend a protest in support of President Trump and expressed concern about votes being “tampered with.”
