WASHINGTON (AP) — A Virginia man has pleaded not responsible to fees accusing him of planting two pipe bombs exterior the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican nationwide events on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Brian J. Cole Jr., of Woodbridge, Virginia, entered the plea at a quick listening to on Friday.
He’s dealing with two counts of transporting and trying to make use of explosives.
Justice Division prosecutors have mentioned that Cole confessed to putting pipe bombs exterior the Republican Nationwide Committee and the Democratic Nationwide Committee headquarters solely hours earlier than a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Cole mentioned he hoped the explosives would detonate and “hoped there can be information about it,” prosecutors wrote in courtroom paperwork.
After his arrest final month, Cole instructed investigators that he believed somebody wanted to “converse up” for individuals who believed the 2020 election, which Democrat Joe Biden received, was stolen and that he needed to focus on the nation’s political events as a result of they have been “in cost,” in keeping with prosecutors.
If convicted of each fees in opposition to him, Cole faces as much as 10 years of imprisonment on one cost and as much as 20 years of imprisonment on a second cost that additionally carries a five-year necessary minimal jail sentence.
