A status hearing for Brian Cole Jr. is scheduled for 2 p.m. today at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Justice continues its prosecution of an autistic Virginia man charged in December 2025 with planting the pipe bombs outside DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021.

Judge Blocks Trump Pardon — Case Stays Alive

In a ruling issued just days ago on July 6, a Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali , ruled that Trump’s sweeping January 6 pardons do not apply to Cole because he was charged after the events covered by the pardon language. The decision keeps Cole in legal jeopardy while the real questions go unanswered.

 

This is no ordinary prosecution. Explosive investigative reporting by Steve Baker, himself a J6 defendant arrested for the crime of journalism, has built a compelling case that the FBI arrested the wrong person. The real suspect, according to Baker, appears to have been protected at the highest levels of government.

Baker and Joseph Hanneman’s forensic gait analysis produced a 94-98% match between the gray-hooded pipe bomber on surveillance footage and the original suspect.

Side-by-side video comparisons are damning.

The bomber’s shoe size is also significantly smaller than Cole’s, rendering the government’s case physically implausible. Cole, an autistic man who still lives with his parents, has been portrayed by FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin and others as a vulnerable patsy — an easy target for the feds to pin the crime on while protecting the real suspect.

 

Bongino, Massie, and the Alleged Effort to Kill the Story

Even more telling: Rep. Thomas Massie publicly revealed that then-FBI Director Dan Bongino told him he would personally finance defamation lawsuits against the reporters exposing the previous suspect Kerkhoff..

Dan, in your first call, which I think is the first and last occasion you and I ever spoke:

(1) you seemed upset that I had received and had released FBI whistleblower information about the pipe bomb investigation.

(2) I informed you that your staff had threatened to…

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 31, 2026

Massie also stated that Bongino appeared upset over the release of FBI whistleblower information and that then-FBI Deputy Director’s staff had allegedly threatened criminal investigations against Massie’s own staff.

Former Capitol Hill Police Officer / current CIA employee Kerkhoff was a person of interest & failed a lie detector test, before the famous Blaze article was published. Looks like defamation suits FBI DD Bongino told me he would personally finance against reporters are a bust. https://t.co/pA96J5lN9F

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 1, 2026

Bongino, who once vehemently insisted the pipe bombing an “inside job,” later dismissed The Blaze’s reporting as “grossly inaccurate” once inside the FBI.

Steve Baker says that Dan Bongino called the Blaze 2 times to try to stop his J6 pipe bomber story from coming out and ultimately Kash Patel called them right before he was fired.
This is Steve’s words. I don’t know if it’s true.
However, I believe Steve Baker over Kash and Dan.

— RandyGoat 🐐 (@RandyGoat) April 11, 2026

Clare Locke Lawsuit: Pure Damage Control

Kerkhoff is now suing Baker through the powerhouse defamation firm Clare Locke, the same outfit that targeted Fox News for Dominion Voting Systems.

🚨J6 Video You’ve Never Seen🚨

The much-feared media company-killing law firm, Clare Locke, that represents former @CapitolPolice officer and current @CIA asset Shauni Kerkhoff — (Oh, let’s be real … they represent the CIA) — sent a demand/preservation letter to @theblaze,… pic.twitter.com/XUJ6WkklAy

— Steve Baker (@SteveBakerUSA) April 4, 2026

The move reeks of damage control, not justice.

The Two-Tiered Justice Americans Are Sick Of

This is the kind of two-tiered injustice that defines the weaponization of federal power: ordinary Americans rot in prison for walking into an open building, while a cop-turned-CIA operative who allegedly escalated the chaos walks free with a government paycheck and high-powered legal protection.

The Gateway Pundit Will Be There

The Gateway Pundit will be inside the courtroom today delivering updates, reactions from Cole’s family and an interview with Steve Baker.

The American people deserve the unvarnished truth. Is an innocent man being sacrificed to protect a federal insider while viable  pipe bombs that could have killed or maimed remain a half-buried scandal? The weaponization of January 6 continues, and the cover-up reeks from the top down.

Alicia Powe Alicia is an investigative journalist and multimedia reporter. Alicia's work is featured on numerous outlets including the Gateway Pundit, Project Veritas, Red Voice Media, World Net Daily, Townhall and Media Research Center, where she uncovers fraud and abuse in government, media, Big Tech, Big Pharma and public corruption. Alicia has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She served in the Correspondence Department of the George W. Bush administration and as a War Room analyst for the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee.

You can email Alicia Powe here, and read more of Alicia Powe's articles here.

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