Pipe bombs: The end of a conspiracy theory?

“After a five-year manhunt that fueled intense speculation and conspiracy theories,” said Kyle Cheney in Politico, we may finally know who planted pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. The FBI announced last week that it had arrested Brian Cole Jr., 30, at his Virginia home on suspicion of leaving the deadly devices outside the Democratic and Republican national party headquarters. “No new tip led to Cole’s arrest.” Instead, investigators scoured the mountains of already collected evidence, including phone tracking data and bank records that show Cole—who allegedly told agents he believed President Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen—bought galvanized pipe, timers, and other bomb components. This is “compelling circumstantial evidence,” said former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance in her Substack newsletter. Yet rather than explain her case, Attorney General Pam Bondi used a press conference to falsely claim the Biden administration had failed to aggressively investigate the plot. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino joined in the attack, saying it was refreshing to have a president who actually goes after “the bad guys.” 

Bongino’s triumphalism is “more than a little ironic,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review. The former Fox News host spent years insisting the pipe bombs were part of an elaborate Deep State hoax, claiming the plot was “a freakin’ inside job” intended to tar Trump and the MAGA faithful as violent terrorists. In a February episode of his podcast, Bongino even called the pipe bombs “the biggest scandal in U.S. history” and argued that former vice president Kamala Harris may—“in some fashion”—have helped cover up the truth. Yet now that the agency he leads has demolished that “vast conspiracy theory,” Bongino wants us to forget all the nonsense he spouted. “I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week. Now “I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.” 

Sorry, but conspiracy theories don’t die that easily, said Will Sommer in The Bulwark. Despite Bongino and Bondi’s attempt at truth-telling, the MAGAverse is still convinced the Deep State is responsible. Hard-right Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he’d never believe Cole was a Trump supporter or “lone wolf,” while Infowars host Breanna Morello claimed without evidence that one of the case’s prosecutors was somehow compromised. To accept Cole is just another election denier would blow up their whole worldview. And perhaps just as importantly, if Cole did plant the bombs, there’d be “no conspiracy theory for right-wing media to keep pursuing.” And that would be bad for business.