“The interviewing agents reminded the defendant that lying to them was an additional criminal offense and asked the defendant again whether he was the individual on the surveillance video,” prosecutors said in the filing. “This time, the defendant paused for approximately 15 seconds, placed his head face down on the table, and answered, ‘yes.’”
The government’s assertion that Mr. Cole confessed to planting the bombs came just two days before he was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing to determine his bail. In their papers, federal prosecutors asked that Mr. Cole remain in custody as he awaits trial. His lawyers, who say he has severe autism, have not yet filed their own court papers laying out their views on their client’s pretrial detention.
The question of who planted the pipe bombs on the night before the Capitol was attacked has long stood as a kind of Rorschach test for wider views about the events of Jan. 6.
For years, conspiracy theorists have seized on the pipe bomb case, alleging that shadowy government forces had planted the explosives as a distraction to make it easier for the Capitol to be stormed, in an effort to ultimately blame the breach on Mr. Trump and his supporters.
The arrest of Mr. Cole, who has no apparent connections to the government, clearly contradicted those conspiracy theories, even though they had long been promoted by some of the very same F.B.I. officials unveiling a breakthrough in the case this month.
Chief among those officials was Dan Bongino, the bureau’s deputy director, who accused the F.B.I. of covering up the pipe bomb case when he was working as a podcaster. Mr. Bongino recently announced that he was resigning from his post as the bureau’s No. 2 official.