The Virginia man accused of planting two pipe bombs in Washington, DC, the night time earlier than the 2021 US Capitol riot requested a federal decide on Monday to dismiss his case, arguing that President Donald Trump’s expansive pardon of January 6 rioters applies to him.
Brian Cole Jr.’s alleged conduct “is so inextricably and demonstrably tethered to the ‘events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021’” that Trump’s sweeping clemency prevents him from being prosecuted, his attorneys argued in a submitting.
“The President’s Pardon unequivocally applies to Mr. Cole, because in no manner is Mr. Cole’s alleged conduct wholly independent of events at the Capitol on January 6,” the attorneys mentioned.
NCS has reached out to the White House for remark.
Politico was first to report on the movement to dismiss.
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On his first day in workplace final 12 months, Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to nearly every person who was convicted of attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, marking the top of a sweeping four-year Justice Department probe.
Prosecutors say that Cole positioned bombs close to the Republican and Democratic nationwide committees’ headquarters on the night time of January 5, 2021, and word that the invention of the bombs diverted legislation enforcement from the violence on the Capitol the subsequent day.
The FBI arrested Cole in December at his residence, the place he lived along with his mother and father. He pleaded not responsible in January to federal prices of transporting and trying to use explosives.
The FBI, which performed a yearslong investigation, alleges that Cole compiled bomb-making provides for months earlier than leaving the viable explosive gadgets exterior of the political places of work.
Cole’s authorized group beforehand argued the alleged gadgets may by no means have exploded and say their consumer has been solely peaceable and follows a strict routine due to his diagnoses, which embody autism. Their Monday submitting notes that Cole disputes the federal government’s allegations and maintains his innocence.
During interviews with the FBI, Cole told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, NCS beforehand reported. Investigators additionally say they linked Cole’s cellphone information to cell towers round Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The calls and texts he made matched safety footage time stamps that present how the bomber moved the night he planted the gadgets, they mentioned.