Cole's Arrest Deosn't Answer All Tne Pipe Bomb Questions

There are actually two sets of questions that remain about the January 5-6, 2021 pipe bombs that didn't explode outside the Democrat and Republican National Committee headquarters. One set, which I currently discount, is from diehards who variously still think the figure in mask and hoodie on surveillance footage is a woman, or who think that even if Brian Cole Jr made and set the bombs, he's only the visible part of a bigger deep state conspiracy.

The other set of questions comes mostly from Julie Kelly, whom we should credit for being initially skeptical that the figure in mask and hoodie was a former Capitol Police officer. She has raised questions about the whole current narrative that the bombs were set on the evening of January 5 by the figure in mask and hoodie, whoever that may be, Brian Cole Jr or someone else, although any actual evidence in the case released so far points strongly to Cole and January 5.

Kelly has paid a great deal of attention to Karlin Younger, a Capitol Hill resident who by Younger's account discovered one of the pipe bombs while walking through an alley near the Republican National Committee about 12:40 PM on January 6. However, she's found many inconsistencies in Younger's story. Her claim as of early 2021 waas that on January 6, she was working from her apartment and took a break at noon to do her laundry, taking a route through the alley. She made a first trip to the laundromat at that time but apparently didn't see a bomb. (This is shown in the photo above.)

However, on a second trip to put the laundry load into the dryer at about 12:40, she did discover the bomb. Surveillance footage confirms that she ran to the entry of the Capitol Hill Club to report what she'd found. However, although she reported the bomb at the time, she apparently wasn't asked to identify herself, and it wasn't until January 8 that she contacted the FBI tip line to say she was the one who found the bomb. In this online tip, according to Julie Kelly at the link,

Younger claimed she was “passed by a woman in front of the Capitol Hill Club who stared at me suspiciously, in such a way that now makes me think maybe she had some knowledge of what was in the alleyway.” She then described the woman in detail: “From what I remember, she was Caucasian, middle-aged (45-55?), of shorter stature (5’4”-5’6”?), heavier set (180-220lbs?), with long dark hair and without a mask. She was wearing a dark or black jacket and jeans.”

She repeated this story, with some differences, in an in-person interview with the FBI on January 11. However, at the link,

Surveillance video, however, contradicts her allegations about a “suspicious” woman. At no point—whether walking to or from the alley—did Younger pass anyone matching either description she provided in her written tip on Jan. 8 or her interview on Jan. 11.

The version Younger gave the FBI slso contradicts the timeline established by the January 5 surveillance video of the figure in the mask and hoodie that's been repeated by the FBI for the past five years:

Younger also appears to be the only individual with direct knowledge of events who disputes the FBI’s timeline as to when the RNC device was planted. “I can confirm that the device must have been placed between 12 p.m. and 12:40 p.m. It was not present when I went down to the area to start laundry (~12 p.m.),” she wrote in her online tip.

. . . After all, the only person known to have been in that specific area between noon and 12:40 p.m. was—Karlin Younger.

In fact, it's remarkable that the FBI seems to have done so little followup on the information Younger provided. Despite several inconsistencies in her account, there are still questions that lend Younger's version some weight, which Julie Kelly raised in a Substack this past Tuesday, taken from a longer list:

(6) How did multiple police officers from the Capitol Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and U.S. Secret Service miss the device sitting in (almost) plain sight next to the driveway of the DNC?

(7) How did two bomb-sniffing canine units miss the device?

(8) Why did Kamala Harris travel to the DNC in the late morning on Jan. 6? Why has she rarely addressed her near-death experience on Jan. 6 at the hands of an alleged MAGA bomber?

(9) Why was a security camera apparently intentionally diverted away from the location where the device was eventually discovered?

(10) Why did a representative of FirstNet, which employed Karlin Younger on Jan. 6, tell the FBI in a Jan. 20, 2021 email that cell phone data for Jan. 5 “was corrupted and cannot be restored,” which appears to be false [since the FBI was in fact able to obtain it in investigating Cole]?

Julie Kelly also doesn't go into how or when the bomb outside the DNC headquarters was discovered, since Younger discovered only the one outside the RNC. This episode is discussed in Rep Thomas Massie's questioning of Steven D'Antuono in his June 7, 2023 testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. D'Antuono as of January 6, 2021 was in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office and led the FBI's January 6 investigation, but had since left the FBI:

Mr. Massie. Because I think it's remarkable it [the DNC bomb] was discovered within minutes of the other bomb being discovered. And my staff and I found video, and I don't know if you're aware of it, that seems to indicate that a passerby in a black hoodie --

Mr. D'Antuono. Oh, okay.

Mr. Massie. -- discovered that. Remarkably coincidental time. Walked up to a Metro police car, told the Metro police, who seems to have directed that individual in the video that I've seen to a detailee of the Vice President's car, another SUV, and within minutes, they get out of their SUV, find -- the officials now see the bomb. And then incoming Vice President Kamala Harris is evacuated. This all happens within minutes.

Mr. D'Antuono. Okay.

Mr. Massie. But the individual in a hoodie going up to two police cars after he's passed by that bench, did your investigation review this video?

Mr. D'Antuono. I'm not aware of the video you're talking about, sir. I'm not.

Mr. Massie. If you had seen that video, would you be interested in speaking to that person -- Mr. D'Antuono. Absolutely.

Mr. Massie. -- who seems to have discovered that second bomb?

Mr. D'Antuono. In any investigation, whoever discovers the device is somebody you need to talk to, right, because they could be the one that planted the device in the first place. You know, so that's just investigation 101.

D'Antuono seems remarkably unaware of basic details in his office's investigation, and in fact, he's remarkably unperturbed at his lack of awareness -- gee, my agents didn't do basic stuff. Think of that! This seems to give just a glimpse into what the FBI missed, either inadvertently due to incompetence, or deliberately,

How all this was missed is just the start of the questions that aren't being asked. Another, for instance, is exactly why did neither bomb detonate? We've heard almost nothing specific about this. Was it deliberate, or just Cole's incompetence?