January 6 pipe bomb suspect is an ‘autistic recluse computer nerd’… and he is NOT a Trump supporter, family claims

The 30-year-old Virginia man accused of planting pipe bombs near Capitol Hill on the eve of the January 6, 2021 riots is an autistic recluse and ‘computer nerd’ who has no party affiliation, his grandmother told the Daily Mail on Friday.

Brian Cole confessed and told his FBI interrogators that he is a Trump supporter and holds anarchist views, MSNOW reported citing unnamed sources.

But Loretta, his grandmother, said Cole has no party affiliation and never votes.

Rather, he keeps to himself, living in his mother’s basement in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he’s been grieving the loss of his beloved pet chihuahua, while working a data entry job for his family’s bail bonds business.

‘He’s not politically affiliated with anything,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail during an interview at her home in Gainesville, Virginia. ‘He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.

‘He’s borderline autistic,’ she added. ‘He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking – What the hell? What’s going on?’

She said FBI agents swooped in to search her office on the southern outskirts of Washington, D.C. on Thursday, the same day they arrested her grandson.

She said her son Brian Cole Sr. had a message passed to her son at his arraignment Friday.

Brian Cole confessed and told his FBI interrogators that he is a Trump supporter and holds anarchist views, MSNOW reported citing unnamed sources

Authorities shared previously unreleased footage of the perp stalking the streets of Washington DC the night before the infamous riots in the weeks before Cole’s arrest

Law enforcement officials examine a vehicle in front of the home of suspected January 6, 2021 pipe bomber on December 4, 2025 in Woodbridge, Virginia

‘We were told that the main thing he’s very upset about is that he disappointed us, that he got locked up,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail. ‘We told him we’re out here, we’re going to make sure thing’s taken care of.

‘We’re terrified,’ she said. ‘They say they’ve got all this evidence. Whatever happened, we’ve still got to fight it. We have to figure out what to do.’

She said she had no idea her grandson may have been gathering parts for months to build the bombs from area businesses, stored them in the home, then allegedly tried to carry out a terrorist attack.

Cole was charged with laying explosives outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, which did not detonate.

She said she doesn’t believe the charges.

‘This young man is very calm and quiet,’ she said. ‘He just stays to himself. Nobody bothers him because he doesn’t bother anybody.

‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend,’ she added. ‘That’s how slow he is. He’s just off in a little world on his own. He stays downstairs and he used to be with his dog all the time.’

‘That’s why everything is so messed up with us because he’s a good kid,’ she said. ‘If you knew him, you would say that he couldn’t have done it.’

‘And if he did, it was just him trying to prove a point or whatever,’ she continued. ‘He probably doesn’t even know the magnitude of what he’s done, if he did it.’

Cole was charged with laying explosives outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, which did not detonate

Dan Bongino speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice Headquarters in Washington, DC after the FBI arrested Brian Cole

The bombs were made of threaded galvanized pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder. One of the planted devices is pictured above

She last him Wednesday when he came to work.

‘He’s a data entry clerk in the office and answers the phones,’ she said. ‘He’s right in the reception area up front. We have a business, so we have to put him to work. And he understands that. He’s good with data entry.’

‘All I can tell you is I love my grandson,’ she said. ‘He’s not a bad kid and he’s not affiliated with any gangs or anything like that. He’s not a political anarchist, or whatever they’re calling him. People could pull unnamed sources out of the sky. I don’t believe that. I don’t know.’

The calm of the leafy suburb was disturbed on Thursday when two Humvees loaded with SWAT teams in camouflage and carrying rifles raided his home, nabbing Cole.

The arrest marks the first major breakthrough in the five-year investigation that had baffled the agency and sparked a wave of conspiracy theories.

His arrest came after the FBI offered a $500,000 reward for leads to identify the suspect.

Authorities shared previously unreleased footage of the perp stalking the streets of Washington DC the night before the infamous riots.

Cole’s arrest was reportedly not the result of a new breakthrough in the investigation, but came after the FBI reviewed existing evidence it had collected in 2021 and 2022.

This map depicts the approximate route the suspect walked on January 5, 2021, while placing two pipe bombs in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC

Police block the street near the house where the FBI arrested Cole, in Woodbridge

Sources said that Cole’s arrest may cause embarrassment for the Bureau because they’d had all the information necessary to arrest him for close to five years.

Video showed the hooded suspect setting down a backpack on South Capitol Street, before putting on glasses and scanning their surroundings for witnesses and leaving.

The suspect then walked to the nearby DNC headquarters, where a bomb was placed at 7:54pm.

Surveillance then showed the suspect walking to the RNC headquarters and placing a bomb at 8:16pm.

The suspect wore a face mask, glasses, a grey hooded sweatshirt, gloves, and black and light grey Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow logo.

The explosive devices planted outside the two buildings in the Capitol Hill neighborhood were located the next day.

Hours later hordes of Donald Trump supporters descended on Washington DC to protest the 2020 election results.

US Capitol Police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to the RNC’s office at 12.45pm.

About 30 minutes later, as the agents and bomb technicians were still investigating at the RNC, another call came in for a similar explosive device found at the DNC.

The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Officials said the homemade bombs were constructed out of threaded galvanized pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder.