President Donald Trump's mass pardons for people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol events do not apply to a Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties the previous night, 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 protesters 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 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 later. 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.
Ali was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump, a Republican, said Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him. Supporters who attended Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally near the White House on Jan. 6 went to the Capitol, where the joint session of Congress certifying Biden's electoral victory was disrupted.
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.