Pipe-Bomb Suspect’s Arrest Solidifies Patel’s Standing

In a major breakthrough in one of the FBI’s most high-profile unsolved cases, the FBI Thursday morning arrested Brian Cole Jr., 30, in his family’s Woodbridge, Va., home and accused him of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., the day of the U.S. Capitol riot. Cole has been charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction using explosive materials, according to court documents. The bombs never detonated, and there’s a lingering question about whether they were capable of doing so.

Regardless of the level of danger, the pipe bombs have fueled a flood of conspiracy theories over who planted them and why no law enforcement officers found the device placed at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, even though the Secret Service had swept the site before then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s visit that day.

As video footage of FBI agents surrounding Cole’s house played on several cable TV stations, Patel, surrounded by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and a phalanx of top federal law enforcement officials gathered under the klieg lights at the Justice Department press room for a victory lap on the arrest. The Trump administration investigators had pinpointed Cole not because of any new tip, but just old-fashioned police work, Patel said. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s FBI let the case gather dust for years, Trump officials argued.

“This cold case languished for four years until Kash and Bongino came to the FBI,” Bondi told reporters Thursday.

An affidavit signed by an FBI agent who worked on the case and released to the public showed that the FBI tracked Cole’s bomb-making equipment to purchases at Home Depot and Walmart. It also said Cole’s cell phone pinged in the area of the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, when video showed a shadowy individual in a hoodie planting the bombs. His car, according to the affidavit, was also a half mile from the bombs on the same night.

The suspect’s motives remain a mystery, but reports surfaced Thursday afternoon that the alleged bomber had anarchist leanings.

While critics, including former FBI agent and podcaster Kyle Seraphin, cast doubt that the evidence against Cole Jr. was anywhere near conclusive, Bondi and others, including U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, heralded the arrest as a bombshell achieved through diligence and constant coordination between law enforcement agencies.

“This execution was flawless in terms of teamwork, resilience, and just a good, old-fashioned way of police getting the job done,” Patel told reporters, noting it was Bongino who led the months-long investigation. “When you let good cops be cops, this is what happens. I’m eternally grateful to the team behind me, to the leadership at the FBI who made this possible.”

Bongino praised Trump for setting the tone and giving them marching orders to “go after the bad guys and stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement.”

Indeed, for many critics, especially those on the right, the FBI that Kash and Bongino inherited had become politically weaponized against Trump and conservatives to the point it public trust in the agency was at historic lows. Under Biden, the FBI had produced internal directives to investigate parents who criticized local school boards, including Catholics and pro-life individuals, and had spent an inordinate amount of time and resources interrogating and arresting individuals who entered the Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riots, even those who played no role in the violence.

When Patel and Bongino arrived at the FBI, MAGA world cheered, but expected instant reforms and transparency on some of the most controversial law enforcement matters, including the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex trafficking scandal. Transparency on the Epstein case proved much harder to achieve, as rumors for months have swirled that a number of prominent politicians on both sides of the aisle, including former President Bill Clinton and even Trump himself, could be exposed for involvement.

Bondi followed her promise to release the Epstein files with an embarrassing White House scene in February in which the attorney general handed out binders of what she inaccurately cast as newly declassified Epstein information to pro-Trump influencers who would later complain that they contained previously released files.

Bongino was so unhappy about the “Bondi binders” and the public backlash over them that he considered leaving his job in July after a heated confrontation with the attorney general, followed by a threat to quit unless Trump fired Bondi. The ultimatum, which leaked to the press, fueled speculation over who would survive the next few weeks, Bondi or Bongino.

The ugly spat subsided, and both Bondi and Bongino survived. But dissent from the left and the right against Patel and Bongino had ebbed and flowed during his nine months on the job with reports as recent as last week that Patel was on thin ice and set for removal. The rumors of Patel’s imminent departure reached a crescendo heading into and over the Thanksgiving weekend until the White House poured cold water on the reports that Trump was poised to fire Patel.

Last weekend, The Telegraph, a British newspaper, citing anonymous sources, claimed that the “mood is miserable” inside Patel’s “chaotic” FBI. Rank-and-file FBI agents were reportedly angered by several perceived blunders, including that Patel had prematurely announced that the FBI had thwarted a potential terrorist attack in Michigan on Halloween, in what critics said allowed suspects to flee. Back in September, during the furious manhunt for Charlie Kirk’s assassin, he claimed a killer was in custody when he wasn’t.

Democrats have always taken a dim view of Patel’s leadership at the FBI. Buoyed by reports that the White House was losing patience with the director, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker reminded Patel during a September hearing that a capricious boss might bring his career to an end. 

“I don’t think you’re fit to head the bureau, but here’s the thing, Mr. Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long,” Booker said.” I think this might be your last oversight hearing.”

Patel fired back that the senator was “an embarrassment.”

Over the last month, prominent conservative voices have started to pile on.

In mid-October, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson published a bombshell report showing that Trump shooter Thomas Crooks had a much larger and far more anti-Trump digital footprint than the Biden-era FBI had portrayed.

The New York Post’s Miranda Devine advanced Carlson’s reporting by releasing even more of Crooks’ social media activity – including his visits to DeviantHub, a well-known gender-bending website frequented by furries. Even though the FBI declined to comment for the Devine’s report, a few days later Patel unsuccessfully tried to poke holes in the reporting in interviews with other reporters.

Just last week, Patel also announced a “full force” “coast-to-coast” manhunt for the National Guard attacker when the murderer was already in custody. Patel subsequently clarified that the comments were related to a broader investigation into potential accomplices or a wider plot, and not the announcement of a new manhunt for the already apprehended primary attacker.

Then on Dec. 1, Devine published a report from “an alliance” of anonymous active-duty and retired FBI agents and analysts claiming that the agency was a “rudderless ship” under Patel and Bongino, who were more concerned with building “personal resumes” and engaging on social media than reforming the agency.

The alliance’s report also included an embarrassing tale about Patel refusing to disembark from a plane in Utah the day after Charlie Kirk’s assassination until he was given an FBI raid jacket and then ended up wearing a woman’s jacket. Patel has denied parts of the story, arguing that he needed a rain jacket because he had no time to pack before heading to Utah after Kirk’s killing.

The alliance planned to send its 115-page report to Congress later that week. The same group had previously issued damning reports on the Biden-era FBI warning about crippling DEI and the political weaponization of the agency.

Bongino fired back at the report, arguing that it was the work of disgruntled “deep-state” FBI agents who were angry over the reforms he and Patel had instituted.  

Patel then touted several major reforms during his short tenure and a long list of accomplishments, which included the arrests of 25,000 violent criminals, a 100% increase from last year, and the location and identification of 6,000 victims of child trafficking. Patel also argued that espionage arrests are up 35% under his watch, while fentanyl seizures have increased by 31%.

Still, as of Wednesday, the future of Patel’s and Bongino’s tenure felt rocky at best – until the big announcement that the pair, with the help of key senior FBI agents, had cracked the J6 bomber case.

A source close to the White House and familiar with the president’s thinking described Patel as “a guy with nine lives because anytime you think you have him, he comes back around and does incredible work.” 

The administration has repeatedly and strongly dismissed reports that Trump was considering moving on from his FBI director. To quell the rumors last month, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a photo of Trump and Patel giving the thumbs-up in the Oval Office.

After the arrest of the suspected J6 pipe bomber, the same source suggested that another beleaguered Cabinet member look to the FBI director as an example for managing presidential expectations – that “maybe Pete Hegseth needs to start taking pages from Kash Patel’s book.”

Why keep Patel around? It’s simple, the source said. He puts more points on the board for the administration than he takes off with controversies.

“If there’s talk about whether or not they’re going to drop you, but you keep on winning, even by a small margin, a win is still a win,” the source added, “and the GM is not going to fire you.”  

Another source close to White House and familiar with Trump’s thinking argued that Patel, Bongino, Bondi, and even U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro are working closely and cohesively to “make America safe again.”

“For all this talk about Pam and Kash being on the outs, you don’t have this level of success if there is a dysfunctional relationship between the FBI, the DOJ, and the D.C. attorney,” the source said.

A senior Senate Republican brushed aside “the online back-and-forth” that had consumed Patel in recent weeks, dismissing the controversies as “Beltway chatter.”

The results, particularly the arrest of the alleged J6 pipe bomber, not Patel’s pugnacious social media posts, speak to his record leading the FBI so far.

“It’s obvious that Patel and Bongino are prioritizing public safety above everything else,” the aide told RCP before adding that the arrest is “a major example of how that leads to success.”