A federal judge in Washington, DC ruled Monday (July 7) that President Donald Trump's sweeping pardons for January 6 defendants do not apply to the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside party headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali denied a motion to dismiss charges against Brian Cole Jr., a Virginia man arrested in December 2025 and accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on the night of January 5, 2021. The devices were discovered the following day but did not detonate.

According to court documents, Cole's defense attorneys argued that their client should be covered by the president's clemency because his alleged actions were "inextricably and demonstrably tethered" to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Judge Ali rejected that argument, writing that Trump's pardon "is expressly limited to people who had been 'convicted of offenses' related to those events."

"Cole had not been convicted of the conduct at issue when the President issued the pardon; indeed, he was not charged until many months after the President's proclamation," Ali wrote in his three-page order.

The judge noted that President Trump's pardons, issued on the first day of his second term in office, covered three specific categories: commuted sentences for named individuals, full pardons for "all other individuals convicted of offenses" related to January 6, and a directive to the Attorney General to dismiss pending indictments. Because Cole was arrested nearly a year after the pardons were issued, he did not fall into any of those categories.

Cole's attorney, Mario Williams, had told reporters he voted for President Trump twice and believed the sweeping pardons should apply to his client.

Prosecutors say Cole gave a confession after his arrest, telling FBI agents he felt "bewildered" by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and "something just snapped." Investigators used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect in the case that baffled law enforcement for years.

Cole is charged with interstate transportation of explosives, malicious attempt to use explosives, attempt to use weapons of mass destruction, and act of terrorism while armed. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to return to court Wednesday (July 8) for a status conference. A trial date has not yet been scheduled.

President Trump's mass pardons erased the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history, affecting more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Mark Simone