And some of MAGA’s most fervent supporters want to shut it down.
asserted
some → want → it
Some conservative figures accuse the Trump administration of framing Brian Cole Jr., who was arrested almost five years after the unexploded devices were placed.
asserted
devices → accuse → Jr.
Cole, as NBC News first reported, told the FBI that he believed the 2020 election had been stolen after false accusations fueled by President Donald Trump and his supporters.
asserted
election → report → Trump
Cole has pleaded not guilty, and a trial is set for February.
asserted
trial → plead → February
The FBI said he confessed after his arrest, but his legal team has noted that he was diagnosed with autism and is expected to seek to have the confession tossed based on his disability or argue he was coerced.
asserted
he → say → disability
The prosecution has opened a rift between the Trump administration and some prominent right-wing conservatives who are seeking to undermine the case by spreading discredited theories about who was to blame.
asserted
who → open → theories
They contend the bombs were placed by “deep state” actors to distract from the police response and make Jan. 6 seem more violent.
asserted
Jan. → contend → response
Right-wing activists have appeared in court to support Cole, and former Jan. 6 defendants are backing him online.
asserted
defendants → appear → him
Trump pardoned Jan. 6 defendants as one of his first acts in office, and as a result, the Justice Department shut down ongoing investigations into the rioters who beat and bloodied law enforcement and caused an estimated $2.7 billion in costs.
asserted
who → pardon → costs
Legally, federal prosecutors pushed forward with the pipe bomb case because the devices were placed the night before the attack and therefore the crime wasn’t covered under Trump’s mass Jan. 6 pardon.
asserted
crime → push → pardon
The devices were viable but didn’t explode, law enforcement said.
asserted
enforcement → explode → ?
In a 2024 podcast, Dan Bongino said he had “zero doubt” the bombs were an inside job.
asserted
bombs → say → doubt
When Bongino became the FBI’s deputy director, he pushed the stalled investigation forward.
asserted
he → become → investigation
During the announcement of Cole’s arrest, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi credited him with helping crack the case.
asserted
Bondi → credit → case
Bongino, who left the bureau in January, has not directly addressed how — or whether — his opinions on the “inside job” theory have changed.
asserted
opinions → leave → theory
After the December arrest, he told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in an interview: “I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day I will be back in that space — but that’s not what I’m paid for now.”
asserted
I → tell → what
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., publicly posted a photo of officials — including Bondi, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, FBI Director Kash Patel and Bongino — at the news conference announcing Cole’s arrest and said they were “complicit” in a conspiracy.
asserted
they → post → conspiracy
“The evidence is mounting,” Massie said on social media.
asserted
Massie → mount → media
“All of the people who took credit at the podium upon the arrest of Brian Cole Jr. are complicit, either through negligence or malfeasance.
asserted
who → take → negligence
Mr. Cole is not the J5/J6 pipe bomber, and the identity of the actual perpetrator is being obscured.
asserted
identity → obscure → perpetrator
Before Cole was arrested, the FBI questioned Shauni Kerkhoff, a former Capitol Police officer who was suggested as a possible suspect by reporters for The Blaze, a right-wing website founded by Glenn Beck, based upon a “gait analysis.”
uncertain
who → arrest → analysis
The story was co-written by former Jan. 6 defendant Steve Baker, who pleaded guilty in November 2024 to four misdemeanors but was never sentenced.
asserted
who → co → misdemeanors
Kerkhoff, who had testified in the first Jan. 6 trial, against an armed pro-Trump rioter named Guy Reffitt, was also named in a Blaze story that accused the Capitol Police of using excessive force.
asserted
that → testify → force
Her lawyers say the FBI told her they were investigating “online chatter” — a reference to The Blaze’s reporting — and subjected her to “a search of her home by caravan of armed agents, a bomb-disposal truck, and a helicopter, followed by a three-hour polygraph interrogation,” before she was eventually cleared.
asserted
she → say → interrogation
Kerkhoff, who now works campus security for the CIA, is not a suspect and has not been charged with a crime.
asserted
who → work → crime
The Justice Department has said the former Capitol Police officer has “become the target of a malicious online conspiracy,” and that while the FBI investigated her, it found the claims to be “baseless” and its investigation “yielded zero evidence connecting Kerkhoff in any way to the construction, transportation, or planting of the pipe bombs.”
uncertain
investigation → say → bombs
Among the “extensive evidence of Kerkhoff’s innocence,” it says, is her alibi backed by evidence that she was at her home in Falls Church, Virginia, when the pipe bombs were placed on Jan. 5.
asserted
bombs → say → Jan.
The Blaze retracted its story on Dec. 4, the day of the news conference announcing the charges against Cole.
asserted
Blaze → retract → Cole
The site wrote that while it stood by the sources, in light of the arrest, “we consider the values of fairness and accuracy to require retraction of this article.”
asserted
values → write → article
In April, Kerkhoff sued Blaze Media alleging defamation, saying it “manufactured” the story to fit a “theory they had already decided to report.”
asserted
they → sue → theory
The reporters, Kerkhoff’s attorneys wrote, “built their reporting careers on a single, unshakeable premise: that January 6, 2021 was a ‘deep state’ ‘inside job.’”
asserted
January → write → premise
Instead of investigating with an open mind, the attorneys wrote, the reporters “tried to confirm what they had already decided was true.”
asserted
they → investigate → mind
Her life “remains irrevocably altered: she was placed under FBI scrutiny that will follow her for the rest of her career, has lost friendships and professional opportunities, lives in fear for her physical safety, and has postponed her wedding — all because Blaze Media chose to manufacture a story rather than report the truth,” her attorneys wrote in court papers this week in the lawsuit, which is ongoing.
asserted
which → remain → lawsuit
The Blaze’s legal team has said that its stories didn’t directly identify Kerkhoff as the pipe bomber and that the story “went through multiple rounds of editorial review, including legal review and even review by Blaze Media executives.”
asserted
story → say → executives
Lawyers noted that Blaze Media terminated Baker and that his co-author resigned shortly thereafter, and that the publication is not responsible for any additional statements they’ve made.
asserted
they → note → statements
A message sent to The Blaze’s attorneys wasn’t immediately returned.
asserted
message → send → attorneys
Baker said in an interview with NBC News that he first noticed Kerkhoff when he was reviewing video from the Capitol attack.
asserted
he → say → attack
Baker had accused the government of riling up the crowd on Jan. 6, and he had been looking through publicly available video to find people carrying backpacks that might contain an “agitation weapon,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
uncertain
he → accuse → News
“It’s essentially a directed energy weapon that can either make you extremely agitated and behave in untoward ways, or it can debilitate you,” Baker said, referring to unusual crowd control tactics law enforcement has used in the past.
asserted
enforcement → ’ → past
He said he remains convinced that Cole is not the suspect.
asserted
Cole → say → ?
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
