The U.S. Department of Justice and two Washington, D.C., federal judges failed to follow statute and legal precedent by keeping pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. behind bars since Dec. 4, an “unjust deprivation of liberty” that can only be corrected by his immediate release, defense lawyers argued to a federal appeals court.

Defense attorney J. Alex Little filed an interlocutory appeal after U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh and U.S. District Judge Amir Ali denied Cole release pending trial on charges that he placed two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021.

‘At that moment, by operation of statute, the government’s right to hold Cole in custody expired.’

In a 72-page appeal memo and 350-page appendix filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Little said the judges violated his client’s rights by failing to hold a required preliminary hearing and then largely ignoring defense evidence that Cole poses no danger to the public.

Federal prosecutors, he wrote, obtained an invalid indictment from the District of Columbia Superior Court on Dec. 29 because they had no intention of presenting evidence at an adversarial preliminary hearing. The federal indictment handed up on Jan. 6 compounded the errors, Little contended, and contained one criminal count with an expired statute of limitations.

FBI agents and technicians search the 2017 Nissan Sentra belonging to Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. outside his Woodbridge, Virginia, home on Dec. 4, 2025. Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

“The government — apparently unaware of, or indifferent to, its obligations under [18 U.S. Code] § 3060 and facing the reality that no federal grand jury would be available — raced instead to a D.C. Superior Court grand jury as an end-around to avoid a probable cause hearing,” Little wrote. “Cole objected and requested immediate release.”

Under federal law, criminal defendants must either be charged by grand jury indictment or be given a preliminary hearing within 14 days of their first appearance in court. At a preliminary hearing, defense attorneys are allowed to cross-examine witnesses and challenge government evidence. Cole was arrested Dec. 4 and first appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5.

On December 3, the DOJ filed a criminal complaint charging Cole with two counts: transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce with intent to kill, injure, or intimidate, and malicious attempted destruction by means of explosive materials.

No required preliminary hearing

Cole’s attorneys agreed to delay his detention hearing until Dec. 30, but Little said that did not substitute for the mandatory preliminary hearing. The Dec. 29 Superior Court indictment is not a valid substitute for a federal grand jury indictment, Little wrote.

“A Superior Court indictment is not a placeholder, and a subsequent federal indictment cannot reach back in time to satisfy a condition that was not met when it was due,” Little wrote. “This Court should reverse and order Cole’s release.”

Judge Ali held that Cole likely waived the preliminary hearing by not moving to schedule the hearing, according to Little, but said the responsibility was the magistrate’s alone.

RELATED: Brian Cole Jr.’s location just the latest snag in the DOJ’s evolving Jan. 6 pipe-bomb narrative

A federal grand jury charged Brian Cole Jr. with two explosives-related charges, alleging he planted pipe bombs on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021. FBI, Prince William County photos

“The hearing date is the court’s to set,” Little wrote. “The court has no discretion to omit it. And the defendant bears no responsibility for the court’s compliance with its own mandatory obligation.”

“Even assuming Cole’s right to a preliminary hearing had not been forfeited — and it had not — the government’s attempt to satisfy § 3060(e) through a D.C. Superior Court grand jury indictment was legally invalid,” Little said.

The statutory reference to “an indictment” refers to a federal indictment, Little added.

‘Congress prescribed mandatory discharge as the consequence for the government’s failure.’

“The Superior Court return was not one. The government did not seek the Superior Court indictment because it was the right vehicle,” he wrote. “It sought it because no federal grand jury was available, and it had no intention of presenting evidence at a preliminary hearing.”

The D.C. Superior Court “does not have jurisdiction over federal criminal offenses,” Little wrote. “Congress vested ‘original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States,’ in the federal district courts ‘of all offenses against the laws of the United States.’”

Magistrate Judge Sharbaugh on Jan. 2 ruled that Cole should remain behind bars until trial. The defense moved to revoke that order, which District Judge Ali refused to do in a ruling on Jan. 16. The defense filed for reconsideration of that decision. On Jan. 29, Judge Ali affirmed the decision to jail Cole until trial, ruling that no release conditions could guarantee the safety of the public.

Little contends that those decisions just compounded a judicial error.

Officials from the FBI’s Evidence Response Team and the Special Operations Branch walk toward the home of Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. in Woodbridge, Virginia, Dec. 4, 2025. Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

“On December 30, 2025, no valid federal indictment had intervened, no preliminary hearing had been held, and no lawful extraordinary circumstances finding had extended the deadline,” Little wrote. “At that moment, by operation of statute, the government’s right to hold Cole in custody expired.

“Congress prescribed mandatory discharge as the consequence for the government’s failure to comply with the preliminary hearing statute,” he said. “That consequence should be imposed now.”

Short shrift for evidence?

Little said Judge Ali erred by not giving more than a passing glance at defense evidence offered after Judge Sharbaugh’s ruling.

The defense offered evidence refuting the DOJ’s claim that Cole erased his cell phone to destroy evidence in the case and argued that there is no evidence Cole is a danger to the community.

Cole began “wiping” or doing a factory reset on his cell phone in mid-2022. Prosecutors said he wiped the device some 943 times, right up until his arrest. A defense psychologist submitted an affidavit that such behavior is common among those suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Maryland neuropsychologist David O. Black, who said he diagnosed Cole with autism spectrum disorder, level 1, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, told the court, “Repetitive behavior of this nature is consistent with behavior that is often seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

‘The government cannot have it both ways.’

“Between January 2021 and now, the government cannot point to a single threatening act, a single violent communication, a single extremist affiliation, or a single acquisition of explosive materials,” Little wrote. “It does not claim Cole threatened anyone. It does not claim he posted anything alarming online; indeed, it concedes it found no such posts.”

Little again undermined the DOJ’s argument that Cole spent nearly five years evading the FBI’s massive pipe-bomb investigation.

RELATED: Prosecution of Brian J. Cole Jr. for Jan. 6 pipe bombs raises more questions than it answers

Police block off the road leading to the home of pipe-bomb suspect Brian J. Cole Jr. in Woodbridge, Va., on Dec.4, 2025.Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

“The government cannot have it both ways,” Little wrote. “Either Cole was a meticulous concealer who carefully covered his tracks for nearly five years, or he was someone who left Home Depot receipts from November 2020 in his vehicle until December 2025, stored pipe components in a closet and his car with their original purchase receipts, and purchased every component using his own credit and debit cards under his own name.”

Cole’s defense team has volunteered that Cole be placed on strict court supervision that includes home detention with GPS monitoring. Cole’s grandmother, Loretta Donnette, volunteered to be responsible for Cole and ensure that he complies with all court release conditions. Her husband, a retired federal law enforcement officer with the Government Services Administration, would be home at all times, she told the court.

“Cole has no criminal history, strong community ties, and a family — including a retired law enforcement officer — prepared to ensure his compliance,” Little said. “Pretrial detention under these circumstances is not ‘the carefully limited exception’ the Constitution requires. It is an unjustified deprivation of liberty that this Court should end.”

The DOJ originally had until March 9 to respond to the defense’s appeal memorandum, but on Monday the Court of Appeals issued an order suspending the appeals calendar for the case. It’s not clear how that will impact timing of a decision from the court.

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​January 6 

A Minneapolis county attorney said her office is investigating 17 incidents involving federal agents, including Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, for possible criminal charges.

Bovino headed the immigration enforcement mission in Minnesota dubbed Operation Metro Surge but left the area after the deaths of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January.

‘We will investigate and pursue charging where appropriate, and we’ll seek collaboration with local law enforcement wherever and whenever needed.’

On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said it was investigating the incidents and opened an online portal to collect tips from the public about “potentially unlawful behavior” committed by agents of Operation Metro Surge.

“Our [Transparency and Accountability Project] team is actively investigating 17 incidents that have been brought to our attention by the community, including Gregory Kent Bovino’s actions near Mueller Park on January 21,” reads a statement from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

Moriarty was likely referring to an incident captured on video where Bovino tossed a canister of chemical irritants at protesters after giving them a warning to disperse. A photographer also captured an officer apparently directly spraying an irritant into a protester’s face after he was pinned to the ground on the same day.

“We will investigate and pursue charging where appropriate, and we’ll seek collaboration with local law enforcement wherever and whenever needed,” she added.

The statement said that portals created for the cases involving Pretti and Good had been closed after collecting public information.

“Make no mistake, we are not afraid of any legal fight,” Moriarty added. “But we will do this ethically, responsibly, and vigorously. TAP is fundamental to our efforts to ensure the transparency and accountability that our community deserves. This is just the beginning.”

A request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.

RELATED: Sex toys, other objects allegedly thrown at cops at Minneapolis ICE facility, prompting dozens of arrests — but not by DHS

After Bovino left, the administration sent border czar Tom Homan to oversee the operation in Minneapolis. He has since withdrawn the federal officers and ended the operation after citing its successes.

Afterward, Bovino released a video message to federal officers expressing his gratitude and support.

“I’m very proud of what you, the mean green machine, are doing in Minneapolis right now, just like you’ve done it across the United States over these past tough nine months,” he said in front of Mount Rushmore in late January.

“I also want you to know that I’ve got your back, now and always — I love you, I support you, and I salute you,” he added.

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​Border patrol chief gregory bovino, Hennepin county attorney mary moriarty, Dems investigating ice, Operation metro surge, Politics 

President Donald Trump vehemently denied that he was pushed into joining the military operation against Iran by Israel.

The joint Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran have entered a fourth day and are likely to continue for some time as Iran retaliates with missile strikes against its neighbors in the Middle East.

‘Israel was ready, and we were ready. And we’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.’

Opponents of the strikes have lobbed the accusation that the Israelis pushed Trump into joining their military action. At the White House on Tuesday, he rebuffed the suggestion that Israel, and specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was to blame.

“Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” a reporter asked.

“No. I might have forced their hand,” Trump said.

“You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics. And it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first — I felt strongly about that. And we have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives, very successful,” he explained.

“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen,” he added. “So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready. And we’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.”

The president also offered what he thought might be the “worst-case scenario” in Iran.

“I guess the worst case would be, we do this, and then somebody takes over who is as bad as the previous person, right,” the president said. “That could happen. We don’t want that to happen. That would probably be the worst: You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”

RELATED: ‘American-made retribution’: US ‘suicide drones’ deployed against Iran are based on tech from Iranian drones used in Ukraine

The president was hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said his country supports the effort to remove the regime in Iran.

“As I said in Germany the last two days, we are supporting the United States and Israel to get rid of this terrible terrorist regime, and we are looking forward to [the] day after,” Merz said. “And we have to talk about the strategy, what is following after this regime is away.”

The strikes on Iran have led directly to the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also reportedly killed, though an aide told Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency about Ahmadinejad on Sunday: “I am in touch with him. All is good.”

The remaining regime has responded by striking at nearby Middle East states hosting U.S. military bases and assets.

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​Did netanyahu push trump into war, Us-israeli strike on iran, Trump and netanyahu, Iran retaliation, Politics 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration paid child traffickers to sponsor unaccompanied minors.

Moments after Noem was sworn in to testify, a masked protester against immigration enforcement interrupted the hearing by shouting for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The hearing was interrupted a second time by another protester, who yelled out claims that ICE had killed Americans, shouting, “Black lives matter!”

‘We’re not going to stop until we find every single one.’

During Noem’s opening statement, she accused Democrats of holding the DHS hostage by leading a government shutdown of the agency, which she called “reckless” and “unnecessary.”

“As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cybersecurity, and the protection of critical infrastructure, are all being strained. Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered as well,” Noem explained.

She noted that over 100,000 DHS employees are “again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months.”

RELATED: Tom Homan says Trump administration has located 23,000 of the 300,000 migrant children lost under Biden administration

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Noem explained that during the Biden administration’s open-border crisis, unaccompanied minors were “lost” and “not tracked.”

She said that it has been “challenging” because the Department of Health and Human Services, under the Biden administration’s leadership, paid sponsors to host the unaccompanied minors.

“And those sponsors, many times, we found instances where they trafficked these children themselves,” Noem continued. “So under that administration, we not only had children that were in this country as a part of a program, the government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them.”

She declared that under the Trump administration, these practices have ended, and federal law enforcement agents have found many of these children and attempted to reunite them with their families.

Noem reported that the current administration has located 145,000 of the 450,000 children whom the previous White House was not tracking.

“We’re not going to stop until we find every single one,” Noem declared.

RELATED: ICE exposes Biden’s biggest border failure: Kids handed to sex abusers and criminals

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addressed the rise in child abuse material online, noting that in 2023, there were an estimated 104 million images and videos of suspected child sexual abuse reported in the United States.

“With all of these images of kids online, I was shocked to learn recently that hundreds of thousands of children in these images are unidentified,” Hawley told Noem. “The Interpol database alone, 90,000 kids are completely unidentified. In the U.K.’s database, it’s over 200,000.”

“Would it be helpful to you if Congress said, ‘You know what, we’re going to create more analysts, more child abuse expert positions, more forensic analysts, and more prosecutors to give to you to look at these images, figure out who these kids are, and go after their abusers?’” Hawley asked.

“Yes, it’d be incredibly helpful,” Noem responded, adding that providing more resources to Homeland Security Investigations would allow the agency to “free more kids from that life of victimhood.”

Hawley pledged to introduce legislation to provide the DHS with additional funding to rescue children from trafficking.

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​News, Kristi noem, Josh hawley, Senate judiciary committee, Biden administration, Biden admin, Trump admin, Trump administration, Joe biden, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Homeland security investigations, Hsi, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Politics 

For nearly half a century, every U.S. president has drawn a firm red line against Iran — only to watch the regime cross it time and again.

Now, following President Donald Trump’s decisive military strike last weekend that targeted hundreds of sites and eliminated key figures in Iran’s top leadership, Glenn Beck sits down with former Navy SEAL and bestselling author Jack Carr to unpack what this pivotal moment truly means for the region and beyond.

When he first heard the news that the U.S. and Israel had launched a joint military attack on Iran, Carr’s initial reaction was one of “sadness.”

“It made me sad because diplomacy had failed,” he says, arguing that Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran was doomed to fail because acquiescence to any of the three non-negotiables — no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles, and no supporting terrorist proxies — would make the Iranian regime look “weak,” something it cannot suffer if it wants to stay in power.

“Any covert action we’d attempted over the last year or in previous administrations over the past decades, that has failed also, and now we’re in a full-scale military engagement with Iran,” he laments.

Glenn agrees wholeheartedly: “Jimmy Carter said, ‘This can’t stand.’ … Ronald Reagan said, ‘They got to stop.’ … H.W. Bush, ‘It’s got to stop. They got to get to the negotiating table.’ Clinton said that, W. Bush said that, Obama said that, Trump said that in the first term, Biden said that.”

“I mean, at some point you’re like, this is insane. We’ve tried giving them billions of dollars; we’ve tried holding money back; we’ve tried carrots and sticks, and nothing works,” he continues, calling Trump “the first one to say, ‘I’m not kicking the can down to the next president. It’s over.’”

“Some of [those former presidents] actually helped Iran get either more powerful or gave them more options when it came to building up these different weapons programs, to crushing any popular uprising or protests. So I’m not surprised that we got to this point,” Carr says.

“When people declare war on you and tell you that they want to destroy you, you probably don’t want that person to have a nuclear weapon or to have options that can lead to your demise,” he adds.

But Glenn thinks this military operation against Iran is “much bigger” than preventing the terrorist regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“This is about Trump redesigning the entire world and going after CRINK,” he says, arguing that Trump is aiming to “take the I” out of CRINK, “which hurts oil for China, hurts money through the oil for Russia,” and weakens Iran’s supply of drones to Russia.

“To look at this just as Iran, I think you’ll never understand why we did this. Do you believe that’s true, or am I wrong?” he asks.

“You’re absolutely right,” Carr says.

He explains that Trump’s military strike on Iran disrupts China’s crucial economic and technological lifeline to the regime. China buys huge amounts of discounted Iranian oil to evade U.S. sanctions and has committed $400 billion over 25 years to Iran — including selling advanced surveillance technology that helps the Iranian government monitor and suppress its own people.

By weakening or breaking this support, the U.S. not only destabilizes Iran’s regime but also frees up American attention and resources to address bigger long-term threats — confronting China over Taiwan (the island China claims as its own) and the tiny but vital computer chips known as semiconductors (the essential “brains” powering phones, computers, cars, AI systems, and military equipment), most of which are produced in Taiwan — while also handling threats from Russia.

“So you’re exactly right. This is not just about Iran,” he says.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Jack carr, Blazetv, Blaze media, China, Crink, Russia, Iran, Strikes on iran 

A “despicable” homicide suspect was caught on bodycam video pointing a gun at a Florida deputy and pulling the trigger, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Authorities said the Feb. 20 incident took place in Port Charlotte, which is about an hour southeast of Sarasota.

‘Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today.’

Deputies got word that two suspects from a Sarasota County burglary were driving through their jurisdiction in a rental car, officials said.

After observing a traffic violation, deputies stopped the car and made contact with the occupants, officials said.

The driver was identified as 41-year-old Amy Lee; the passenger refused to provide his identification, officials said.

At first, neither Lee nor the passenger complied with deputy commands to exit the vehicle, but officials said they soon obeyed when they were told they would be arrested for obstruction.

Officials learned that Lee was arrested last year on multiple felony charges and that her co-defendant in those cases was 55-year-old Brian Hewson. He turned out to be the passenger in the rental vehicle, and he also had multiple warrants for his arrest, officials said.

Hewson “immediately resisted” when deputies tried placing him under arrest, and a deputy drew his agency-issued taser while shouting a warning, officials said.

But Hewson pulled a concealed firearm, pointed it directly at the deputy, and pulled the trigger, officials said.

However, there was no round in the chamber of the loaded gun, officials said, and it didn’t fire.

With that, the deputy discharged additional taser probes — yet Hewson still tried to re-rack the gun, officials said.

“Thankfully, due to the neuromuscular incapacitation, Hewson was unable to maintain control of the gun, and it was secured by deputies,” officials said.

RELATED: Florida felon named Blackie accused of pointing gun at vehicle in fit of road rage

Officials said Hewson was arrested for multiple warrants — including one for homicide in Pennsylvania, one for failure to appear in Pennsylvania, and charges in Lee County related to trafficking stolen property.

He also was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer for intentionally pointing a firearm at a CCSO deputy, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a controlled substance (1.1 grams of fentanyl found in the vehicle), resisting with violence, and possession of drug paraphernalia, officials said.

He was being held at the Charlotte County Jail without bond, officials said.

RELATED: Knifed for ‘being a Christian’? Suspect allegedly stabs man and his dog after asking about victim’s religion

Brian Hewson. Image source: Charlotte County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

“Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said, adding that “I want to be sure it is understood that my deputies are trained to eliminate a lethal threat with deadly force. They deserve to go home to their families after their shift. This despicable human tried to take one of my deputies out instead of being a man and accepting accountability for his own decisions. Now he will face the justice he has tried to dodge for so long … and I hope he spends the rest of his days behind bars.”

The sheriff’s office added in its Facebook post about the incident that “as a point of clarification: We see a few people questioning why our deputy went taser instead of lethal. The answer to that is that he already had the taser in hand before the firearm was seen. Had our deputy attempted to switch from taser to firearm, he likely would have already been shot. The reaction, in the moment, is to use the taser that was already drawn and aimed to incapacitate the suspect. As you can see in the video, this happened VERY quickly.”

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​Crime thwarted, Florida, Homicide suspect, Charlotte county sheriff’s office, Deputy, Taser, Bodycam video, Port charlotte, Pennsylvania, Warrants, Crime