Judge Rules Trump’s J6 Pardons Do Not Cover Pipe Bomb Defendant

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A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump’s pardons for those charged in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot do not apply to a Virginia man accused of planting pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees before the attack.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali declined to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., finding that Trump’s sweeping January 6 pardons applied only to people who had been convicted of crimes connected to the Capitol riot, according to the Associated Press.

In his ruling, Ali said Cole was neither charged nor convicted at the time Trump issued the pardons.

Trump issued the pardons on the first day of his second term, granting clemency, commuting prison sentences and directing the dismissal of cases involving more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, according to the Associated Press.

The ruling allows the prosecution against Cole to move forward despite the president’s broad clemency order for January 6 defendants.