It was an unsolved mystery for nearly five years: Two pipe bombs were planted outside the Republican and Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C. The next day, supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, protesting the results of the presidential election that he lost.

Since 2021, the case waved in and out of national interest. It was initially overshadowed by the stunning scenes of the Capitol breach. Online sleuths poured over dark surveillance footage of a figure in a hoodie and some distinct sneakers. Conspiracy theorists took hold. 

All the while, the FBI was investigating. On Thursday they announced the arrest of Brian Cole Jr., charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. Cole, 30, is alleged to have placed bombs powerful enough to do lethal damage if detonated. 

How they found him: It was a police procedural come to life: FBI agents conducted at least 1,000 interviews. They reviewed tens of thousands of video files. They pleaded with the public for any identifying information. 

Surveillance video released by the FBI showed the suspect wearing a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a gold logo. The pair was one of 25,000 made — as Nike shoes go, a pretty small amount. 

But while the shoes became the most distinct part of the “Wanted” poster, a court affidavit revealed that it was Cole’s alleged purchase of pipe bomb parts in 2019 and 2020 that led the FBI to him.  

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The slog of data: There was a bit of a split-screen at the news conference this afternoon where federal and local officials announced the charges against Cole.

Some cited the mountains of information agents needed to sift through over time. FBI Director Kash Patel said 3 million lines of data needed to be crunched. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., talked about analyzing the sale of 233,000 black endcaps — parts needed to complete the bombs — to find the handful Cole allegedly bought. 

Both D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith and Darren Cox, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, mentioned the nearly five years of work by various agencies. “I know some people had given up on finding the perpetrator, but not the FBI and our partners,” Cox said. “Our team continued to churn through massive amounts of data and tips that we used.”

But some of Trump’s appointees stressed that this case would have sat unresolved without the president’s blessing. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the case would have continued to languish without Trump’s directive to “go get the bad guys,” as Bongino described it.

Why it matters: I was reading this article by a crack team of colleagues who were all over this story. A quote from a federal prosecutor who oversaw the Capitol riot investigation — an effort that Trump has since shut down — really stuck with me.

The prosecutor, Greg Rosen, said the arrest was a prime example of the revelatory work that career special agents and prosecutors tackle at the FBI — the same agency where some agents said they had been targeted by the Trump administration for their work on the Jan. 6 cases.

"While we don’t yet know all the facts," Rosen said this morning, "the American people should be proud of their work.”

That is the reality of this sort of investigative work. It’s not the flashy stuff of cop movies and police procedurals. Finally finding and arresting a suspect speaks to the quiet work that is often done behind the closed doors of these agencies.

In a televised Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Trump went on a disparaging rant about Somalis in the U.S., calling immigrants from the East African nation "garbage" and saying that they should be sent "back to where they came from." The words echo his first-term demands to know why the U.S. was accepting immigrants from "shithole countries" during a closed-door meeting. 

His words came as federal agents began an operation in Minneapolis. More than 80,000 Somali immigrants — 87% of whom are U.S. citizens or are here legally — call the city home. For more on all this, I reached out to correspondent Maggie Vespa, who is reporting in Minneapolis and talking to Somali Americans there. 

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