Don’t say it won’t happen, folks. Just a day after the FBI announced the arrest of the infamous Jan. 6, 2021 pipe bomb suspect, who planted two explosive devices at the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee that failed to detonate as apparently intended—but nevertheless added to the chaos of the insurrection and law enforcement response that fateful day—said suspect has lined up a plausible reason to think he could also be let off the hook by the country’s capricious Pardoner in Chief. Virginia resident Brian Cole Jr., 30, will appear in federal court on Friday afternoon to be formally arraigned on charges of transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials, but today’s most salient headline comes from NBC News, hinting at the bomber’s potential motive: Belief in 2020 election conspiracy theories.
That’s reportedly what Cole Jr. told the FBI in questioning yesterday as he confessed to planting the devices, according to NBC’s two unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” The FBI itself has not yet publicly cited a motive for the suspect, but their silence and lack of immediate blame on Democratic agitators, “antifa” networks, etc. can be construed as evidence suggesting that NBC’s sources are likely credible–and it makes the agency look like it’s still settling on a way to phrase this as it chooses how to sling blame. If Cole Jr. was indeed a 2020 election conspiracist who believed that Joe Biden had “stolen” the presidency from Donald Trump, then that would almost certainly make him a rabid Trump supporter, someone ideologically tied to the same rioting crowd that ultimately broke windows and doors of the U.S. Capitol, assaulting officers as the country came mere feet away from members of Congress being surrounded by the angry rabble. And if that is who the Jan. 6 pipe bomber turns out to be … well then, a Trump pardon becomes one of the most logical outcomes. After all, Trump already pardoned more than 1,500 individuals who participated in the insurrection, including those who also incurred illegal weapons or child pornography charges in the resulting investigation. Time after time, Trump has shown that his pardons are available to anyone who can give him the two things he desires above all else: Outright worship or the potential for monetary gain.
This pardoning philosophy was certainly present during the first Trump administration, but has only become more nakedly corrupt and absurd in the second, with criminal culpability never standing in the way of Trump deciding to abuse the executive branch’s power to save his most ardent supporters from jail time. To cite one of the many egregious examples: Look no further than Michele Fiore, committeewoman for the Nevada Republican Party, justice of the peace and former member of the Las Vegas City Council. In 2024, Fiore was convicted in federal court on seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud, accused of raising more than $70,000 while on the City Council for use in building a statue that would supposedly honor Las Vegas police officers who had been killed in the line of duty. Said statue was never built, and Fiore instead reportedly used those funds on everything from cosmetic surgery, to rent, to paying for her daughter’s wedding. She was suspended without pay from her office by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline following the conviction, but Donald Trump stepped in just days before Fiore was scheduled to be sentenced with a full and unconditional pardon. Not even stealing money from murdered police officers was enough of an offense for Trump to consider “maybe I should let this particular supporter face the consequences of their actions.”
Within just the last few weeks, Trump has been on another high-profile pardon bender. First he issued a pardon to former Honduran President Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year federal prison sentence after being convicted in U.S. court of conspiring with cartels to move more than 400 tons of cocaine toward the United States–an insanely hypocritical move, given that the U.S. is now poised on the edge of war with Venezuela based on its war-crime-generating efforts to target small drug boats also transporting cocaine. Earlier this week, Trump even crossed the aisle to issue another pardon to a Democratic member of Congress, Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), seemingly solely based upon the fact that Cuellar had been repeatedly critical of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies at the Mexican border. Cuellar had been indicted on charges that he and his wife had accepted nearly $600,000 worth of bribes between 2014-2021 from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank, in exchange for influencing policy in favorable directions for each. Trump, naturally, focused for not one single second on the actual substance of the corruption charges against Cuellar, and simply proclaimed without evidence that the Democratic member of Congress had faced said indictments not because he took copious bribes but because he criticized Joe Biden.
“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” said Trump on Truth Social. “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight—Your nightmare is finally over!” The congressman, understanding how this game is played, replied back with his thanks, insinuating that he knows he is now in Trump’s pocket, thanking Trump “for his tremendous leadership and for taking the time to look at the facts.”
So if Trump has no issue in pardoning one massive drug trafficker even as he’s mobilizing the navy against another, or pardoning a city council member stealing donations from slain police officers, or pardoning a House Rep from the opposing party simply because he criticized Joe Biden, do you really think he’ll draw the line at pardoning the man who confessed to planting the mysterious pipe bombs near the RNC and DNC on Jan. 5, 2021? Who cares that the homemade pipe bombs assembled and planted by Cole Jr. could have killed scores of people if they had successfully detonated? If it is in fact confirmed that his motivation in planning the attacks was belief that the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” from Trump; the President is almost compelled to step in and pardon him, to keep with the internal logic that Trump genuinely believed he had won that election, and that no one righteously acting in his defense could be blamed for their actions … even if those actions were an attempted act of domestic terrorism. Hell, if I was Cole Jr., I’d be swearing up and down right now that I was Trump’s biggest fan, given that he’s the one person who wields the power to make all your problems go away, and has demonstrated a consistent pattern of doing so.
After his arraignment today, Cole Jr. has been scheduled for a detention hearing on Dec. 15, wherein the prosecution will make its argument for keeping him behind bars in the lead-up to trial. Unless, of course, Trump moves with alacrity to pardon the pipe bomb suspect that quickly, although we suspect he’d be more likely to wait until later in the process in order to generate less media scrutiny. Then again, does Trump even care if we witness more of his naked corruption at this point? Perhaps he’ll pardon the bomber immediately just to rub his complete freedom from consequence directly into our faces. Five years of hunting for a suspect, the FBI’s exultation at catching him, and then a quick pardon … at least the reaction of Kash Patel might be funny?
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