Republicans Holding On To Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Conspiracy Theory [View all]

Source: Huff Post

Dec 12, 2025, 02:33 PM EST | Updated 4 hours ago


WASHINGTON — For years, far-right Republicans have claimed the federal government’s failure to catch the Jan. 6 pipe bomber showed the whole insurrection was some sort of “inside job” designed to entrap Donald Trump supporters. So what did they do when the FBI finally arrested a suspect, seemingly blowing up their theories? They doubled down.

In response to the arrest of Brian J. Cole, the 30-year-old Virginia man accused of building and placing the two devices, Republicans’ special committee to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol this week sent out a fresh interview request, formally asking the woman who found the device near Republican National Committee headquarters to tell them what she knows.

“The way I look at these is we always have a theory. We try to prove that theory false. Then you can move on to something else,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chair of the committee, told HuffPost. Loudermilk wonders if Cole may have had help: “Did he have a conspirator on the Hill? Or was it part of a bigger organization?”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who partnered with Loudermilk on an investigation of the pipe bomb case earlier this year, said a confidential source told him the government might even have arrested the wrong guy.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jan-6-pipe-bomb-arrest-conspiracy-theories_n_693c5efee4b018dc36f19002