The arrest of Brian Cole Jr., the Tennessee bail bondsman charged with planting pipe bombs outside both national party headquarters on the eve of the January 6 Capitol riot, has drawn new scrutiny not only to the alleged plot but to the long-running legal battles waged by his family against federal authorities. Court records and filings trace a years-long clash between the Coles’ bond business and the Trump administration—an effort that later evolved into appeals for intervention from the Biden Justice Department.
Cole Jr., 30, is charged with destruction of government property and possession of an unregistered destructive device, reported The Daily Wire. FBI affidavits say he began assembling materials for the explosives as early as May 2019, and investigators placed his phone near the DNC and RNC headquarters around 8 p.m. on January 5, 2021. The devices—packed with smokeless powder and controlled by kitchen timers—were found the next morning by U.S. Capitol Police.
The family business of accused pipe bomber Brian Cole Jr. worked to get illegal immigrants out of ICE facilities & sued Trump's DHS. Court of Appeals ruled against it weeks before Jan 6
It later hired Trayvon Martin's attorney & asked Biden's DOJ to investigate anti-black racism pic.twitter.com/bgAWeCiHs7
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) December 5, 2025
The family company, alternately known as Free U Bonds and StateWide Bonding, Inc., was built by Cole’s father, Brian Cole Sr., and originally operated out of Fairfax County, Virginia before moving to Knoxville in 2017. There, the firm carved out a niche in the immigration-bond sector, posting bail for undocumented immigrants facing removal proceedings. Many of those clients never returned for court dates, resulting in repeated forfeitures and heightened scrutiny from federal and state officials.
That pressure prompted StateWide Bonding to sue the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump’s presidency, arguing that tougher immigration rules dramatically increased the likelihood of bond jumps and placed an unfair burden on the business. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the claim on November 10, 2020, affirming a lower court’s dismissal—a significant setback for the Coles less than two months before the bombs were discovered in Washington.
The company’s regulatory problems did not stop there. In April 2025, a Tennessee appellate panel upheld sanctions against StateWide for misleading disclosures regarding the owner’s financial background. Public records showed Cole Sr. had filed for bankruptcy twice and owed unresolved tax liens, contradicting earlier representations made to oversight authorities.
Cole Sr., who is Black, later cast portions of his professional troubles as racially driven. In November 2021, he stood alongside prominent civil-rights attorney Benjamin Crump—best known for representing the family of Trayvon Martin—to accuse a local prosecutor of discrimination. At a courthouse press event, they urged the Biden administration to step in.
During the event, Cole Sr. said, “He’s defamed me, he’s called my insurance company. … We hope the Department of Justice can come in and do a brief investigation because we’ve seen a lot of questionable acts that Mr. Zimmerman has demonstrated towards minority-owned companies.”
Crump echoed the demands, declaring, “It is appalling and we want these allegations to be investigated to the highest level of government … They called him a punk and a thug, and why? What is it about him? A lot of people believe they know the answer.”
Their criticism centered on Rutherford County Assistant District Attorney John Zimmerman, who had repeatedly raised concerns about StateWide’s operations and sought to curb its ability to post bonds in an adjacent jurisdiction. No federal probe has been publicly acknowledged in response to the 2021 allegations.
As the pipe bomb prosecution unfolds, the emerging portrait is of a family engaged in immigrant-rights advocacy, political confrontation, and racially charged disputes with local authorities—while simultaneously navigating regulatory setbacks that strained their business. Cole Jr. remains held pending trial. Investigators have not publicly described the bomb placements as part of a broader conspiracy, but the timing—hours before the Capitol was overrun—ensures the episode continues to loom over the wider reckoning with the events surrounding the 2020 election certification.
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