WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s mass pardons for supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol don't apply to a Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali refused to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., concluding that Trump's blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters explicitly applied only to people who were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Cole hadn't been charged, let alone convicted, when Trump issued the pardons, Ali noted in his three-page order.
On the first day of his second term in the White House, Trump erased the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history when he pardoned, commuted the prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Cole was arrested nearly a year after Trump's sweeping act of clemency. He is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night before the riot. The devices didn’t detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors have said that Cole gave a confession after his arrest, telling FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and “something just snapped." Investigators also used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect.
Cole's attorneys argued that he qualifies for a pardon because his alleged actions are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events near the Capitol on Jan. 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,” defense lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors countered that Trump's pardons have no bearing on Cole's case since the president's proclamation applies only to people who been convicted of or had a pending indictment for Capitol riot-related crimes.
“And even if the proclamation somehow could apply to this case, the Department of Justice’s contrary position is entitled to deference as a reasonable interpretation taken by the Executive Branch agency expressly charged with administering the proclamation,” they wrote.
Ali was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump, a Republican, spread baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him. Supporters who attended Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 joined a mob's attack on the Capitol, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden's electoral victory.
Cole is due back in court on Wednesday for a status hearing in his case. A trial date for his case hasn't been scheduled yet.
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