For years we wondered who set pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC offices in DC the night before January 6. Conservatives of course claimed it was FBI or other federally backed individuals meant to disrupt the big pro-Trump protest scheduled. Or just some ‘crazed liberal’ but (now) FBI Director Kash Patel and his Deputy Dan Bongino made a nice living for themselves promoting the CT nonsense it was an inside job – even an FBI one. Well, as we now know it was just some quiet (DC) suburban loner who was a TRUMP supporter!
What matters is that it took years to figure out who it was, despite all those hours of video footage of the would-be bomber a suspect was never identified. When the case was broken it was with information that had been gathered years before. It turned out that there was a tranche of T-Mobile cell phone data sitting on the digital equivalent of a shelf because no one could figure out how to read or make sense of it. With so many leads being pursued all across the country (I’ll get to that) AND the fact that a chunk of what they couldn’t make sense of a chunk of what turned out to be crucial information the case went unsolved.
Now, anyone with common sense knows that many a case has sat for years from the local to the federal level without being solved. That’s why periodically even the coldest cases get pulled out so new people can review things with fresh eyes. Also, with time new investigative tools not available before can be brought to bear by a new investigator or team. And as the Wall Street Journal explains that is what happened here:
For four years, a tranche of cellphone data provided to the FBI by T-Mobile US sat on a digital shelf because investigators couldn’t figure out how to read it, people familiar with the matter said. The data turned out to be essential to cracking the case, the people said, a breakthrough that happened only recently when a tech-savvy law-enforcement officer wrote a new computer program that finally deciphered the information. That move led to the arrest of 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. at his home in Northern Virginia, where he had been quietly living with his mother and other relatives.
The case was never relegated to cold case status but countless leads had been checked out and they led to nowhere but frustration. Luckily for all the purging that has gone on at DOJ and the FBI they’ve still had some professionals still working cases. Just as luckily some, like the person who’s yet to be identified was more than just an investigator. That person had mad tech skills, that led to thinking about ways to read and sort through that cell phone data. It took creating a brand new computer program to organize that tranche of cell phone data to a degree agents could find new leads and work them. It really boils down to the right person who happens to have a particular skill and a burst of creative genius that says “what if I/we tried this?” But I can guarantee you it wasn’t something that came about due to Patel or Bongino’s ‘leadership.!’
I said I’d get to this and it’s bugged me since watching the press conference where the arrest was announced. (it had started but I happened to catch most of it live)Â Bondi and Patel practically shouted from the podium when the arrest was announced. They claimed the Biden administration did NOTHING, that they didn’t even TRY to find the bomber. It turns out they were already getting indications it was not an inside job, or a crazed liberal but one of their own. An actual MAGA and Trump supporter who bought into the whole ‘the election had been stolen myth.
Remember that at the time, when Trump was filing all his lawsuits (and losing) and planning his Reichstag Fire at the Capitol to keep Biden’s victory from being official he was supremely pissed at some very prominent and well-respected people he’d appointed. His own freaking AG and DHS Secretary were telling him the election was free and fair. So were prominent Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. News of this got out and MAGAs who simply couldn’t accept their Orange Painted Turd God Emperor was LYING to them. People like the bomber were almost as angry at the GOP (except for Trump) leadership as they were at Biden.
THAT is why this asshat bomber set viable devices outside the RNC, as well as the DNC offices in DC. However as we know he covered his tracks awfully well. At the time he was just a quiet mid-20s guy living with his parents in a nice, quiet community in Woodbridge, Virginia. He stayed that way all these years. However, as we learn from the linked article he had his cellphone with him that night and it was turned on. For all the care he’d taken to avoid notice and with all that wandering give LE countless things and places to check out that cell phone would be his undoing. The point is that they needed a distraction from the fact THEY had been wrong all along. Their bomber was a Trump supporting MAGA which is more than a little inconvenient. Hell, it’s downright embarrassing.
So the focus of the press conference was to make it seem like for the entire Biden administration the FBI and other agencies didn’t do jack. Nothing. I can recall plenty of coverage about this and that lead (that didn’t pan out) and the exhaustive investigative effort that went into finding the bomber. So while watching the Bondi/Patel/Bongino dog and pony show I called bullshit right then and there. In fact, more than once I shouted it at my TV. I’ve written here on PZ about the investigation and all manner of things that were looked at. I’m just some guy on a small political blog.
The WSJ however is one of the most important news outlets in the world. It’s also, even before Rupert Murdoch bought it a solidly conservative leaning paper. Yet especially on non economic news they are usually fair and even handed. It’s causes Trump no small amount of angst that Murdoch doesn’t order the Journal to be Trump administration stenographers and sing his praises (and that of his top administration folks) any chance they get. So what I’m saying is that no one outside of Trump world thinks of them as some bastion of liberal thinking and/or supporters of Democrats. That’s why even if not complete the WSJ lays waste to the LIE that nothing happened with the investigation for four years:
Though neither pipe bomb exploded on Jan. 6, the FBI deemed the devices placed at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees viable, with the capacity to kill or severely injure innocent bystanders. The bureau spared no resources in finding the culprit, using powerful digital tools that produced a sea of information so detailed that it surprised even longtime investigators who were no strangers to complicated manhunts.
Agents studied thousands of pipe purchases at Home Depot stores across the U.S. They analyzed data from Google in an attempt to isolate any individuals who might have searched online for instructions on how to make pipe bombs and for directions to the RNC and DNC. They examined who had paid for parking in the area and explored whether a rented home from Airbnb or Vrbo might have been used as a staging ground in preparation for planting the pipe bombs.
In the end, as happens with cases that sit unsolved for a long time despite repeated people teams coming in to look at the evidence with fresh eyes it boiled down to one person who said “what’s this?” about that set of T-Mobile cell phone data. No one had been able to make any sense of it so it got set aside with so many other leads to follow. However THIS person didn’t posses only investigate skills. This person had a rare combination of creativity and programming skills that led to creation of just the right kind of software that could make it all make sense. And now we have the bomber in custody.
It will certainly be an interesting trial although I’d expect Bondi to try and avoid the embarrassment of their guy being a MAGA and pressuring him to take a deal. Keep an eye on that. I can guarantee you if he hadn’t turned out to be a Trump supporting MAGA Bondi and Patel would be on camera multiple times a week “updating’ us on the case. No, they want this settled as quickly and quietly as possible. It’s stupid I know to make predictions but I’m going to do so anyway.
This guy is only 39 years old. If he was some liberal or a foreigner they could hang the label ‘terrorist’ on they’d be pushing for him to spend the rest of his life behind bars. But he’s just some quiet whitebread guy who supported Trump and MAGA. Not some fire breather and not the type to join in a riot. You’ve seen video. This guy was short enough and slight enough of build some thought he was a woman. Remember all the accusations of it being MTG? Anyway as I said he’s still young. “Problems’ can be manufactured with the evidence, enough that he can get a sweetheart plea deal. Say twenty years at most. Maybe less. He can be out of prison when he’s still got some living left to do.
We’ll see but don’t be surprised if sometime next year when all manner of brown organic matter is interfacing with multiple rotary oscillators (big piles of sh*t hitting fans scattered around the room) a plea deal will be announced in some late Friday news dump. You heard it here first.
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