JUST IN: Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect Believed Trump’s Election Conspiracy

Brian Cole, 30, the suspect accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., told the FBI he believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, according to a new report.

CNN, citing people briefed on the matter, reported on Friday that Cole expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election in interviews with the FBI. Cole was arrested on Thursday and will be arraigned on Friday on charges that he planted pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee buildings in D.C. on the night before the Capitol riot in January 2021.

Cole reportedly spent hours with FBI investigators and made “multiple statements.” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confirmed he had spoken to the FBI, but did not specify what the suspect said.

Officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been using the recent arrest to slam the Justice Department and FBI under former President Joe Biden, with both claiming officials previously sat on the case for years.

“The prior administration sat on the evidence for four years,” Patel told Fox News on Thursday. “There wasn’t any production of new evidence from five years ago.”

Bondi told the network the following day that the case “languished” under Biden officials.

“This case languished, it sat there for years collecting dust,” she said. “No one did anything to solve this.”

Patel said the suspect was eventually caught by going through existing data, including cell phone data and identifying limited edition shoes he was wearing.

“We looked at the cell phone tower data,” he said. “We looked at the providers and what information they provided pursuant to search warrants at the time and asked questions such as why weren’t all the phone numbers scrubbed and why wasn’t there any geo-locational data done? Now that is either sheer incompetence or complete intentional negligence and neither of which is acceptable for this FBI.”