The Justice Department pushed back on claims by the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside of the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters on the eve of the 2021 Jan. 6 Capitol riotarguing that the charges against Brian Cole Jr. should not be dismissed and that his actions were not covered by President Trump’s sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters.
In court filings Friday, the Justice Department opposed a motion by Cole, whose legal team argued that the charges against Cole are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and should be dismissed.
In March, Cole’s legal team pointed to filings by federal prosecutors in the case that said Cole had told the FBI in an interview after his arrest that he had traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a 2020 election-related protest connected to “the same political controversy” that animated the Jan. 6 crowd.
Cole’s attorneys argued that even though the pipe bombs had been planted the night before the riot, Mr. Trump’s pardon of all Jan 6 defendants applies to him, too.
The Justice Department says the pardon explicitly does not cover Cole’s alleged conduct.
Prosecutors wrote that the president’s proclamation expressly limited relief to individuals who had been “convicted of,” or had a “pending indictment” for offenses related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6.
“On January 20, 2025, the defendant belonged to neither category, and so the proclamation has no bearing on this case,” the Justice Department wrote.
Prosecutors said Cole’s Jan. 5 offenses “were not, as the proclamation required, ‘related to’ events at or near the United States Capitol ‘on January 6.'”
They wrote that even if the president’s proclamation “somehow could apply to this case,” the Justice Department’s opposing position “is entitled to deference as a reasonable interpretation taken by the Executive Branch agency expressly charged with administering the proclamation.”
The Justice Department added that when Mr. Trump issued the pardons on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025, “law enforcement had not identified the defendant, much less charged or convicted him, and the pipe bombs investigation proceeded unabated.”