U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro gestures as she speaks about Elias Rodriguez, suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum, at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped the ball on the accused Jan. 6 pipe-bomber, Brian Cole, failing to indict him before the Washington, D.C. grand jury went home for the holidays. Coles' lawyers say that this is why he should be released from jail "without prejudice to the case against him under the new indictment proceeding in its normal course."
National security analyst Marcy Wheeler noticed the court filing, highlighting a footnote toward the end of the document, noting that Pirro's negligence means one of the charges against him expired due to a five-year statute of limitations.
"Even if the release issue were moot — and it is not — the Court nonetheless will have to determine the validity of the purported 'indictment' obtained in the D.C. Superior Court at some point in this litigation. This is true because the January 6 indictment contains at least one charge that has a five-year statute of limitations, and that period expired before the indictment was obtained from the federal grand jury," Cole's lawyers wrote.
The Justice Department argued that any motions filed before the indictment are moot. Cole's lawyers responded to that, saying that it isn't accurate, and the court may still rule on the initial filing, the Emergency Motion for Review of Magistrate’s Order (Dkt. 33).
Wheeler noted that if the bombs were real, the statute of limitations is 10 years.
"The legal basis is straightforward," the Cole lawyers wrote. "Federal law required the government to either hold a preliminary hearing or obtain a valid federal indictment by December 30, 2025—the deadline Mr. Cole consented to extend. The government did neither. When that deadline passed without compliance, the statute’s mandatory remedy attached: Mr. Cole 'shall be discharged from custody or from the requirement of bail or any other condition of release.'"
Wheeler characterized the filing as Coles team trying to "argue he should be released from jail because Jeanine Pirro is so f------ incompetent she forgot to indict him before the grand jury went home for holidays."
Pirro was ridiculed for posting a video of herself in a sequined dress, celebrating the new year, while she failed to garner a grand jury indictment for the alleged bomber. She was forced to seek an indictment from the Superior Court instead.