WASHINGTON — The scruffy red-Crocs-loving suspect accused of planting homemade bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee offices in DC ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot shuffled into federal court for a brief hearing Friday — while female kin wept and cried out to him, “We love you!’’
Brian Cole Jr., 30 — who has already allegedly copped to the crime to investigators — was hauled into the DC federal courtroom for the first time since his arrest Thursday to officially hear the charges against him.
He faces raps from transporting an explosive device across state lines with the intent to kill, injure and damage property to attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.
Six unidentified family members showed up for Friday’s proceedings but declined to comment.
At the end of the roughly 10-minute hearing, two women in the group cried out to Cole from the courtroom gallery with tears streaming down their faces.
“We love you, Brian! We’re always here for you!” they said.
Cole — wearing a khaki jail jumpsuit and sporting a scruffy mustache — only spoke to answer Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya as she asked him standard questions, including involving him understanding his rights and to tell her the highest level of education he completed: high school.
Upadhyaya is the same judge who handled the Jan. 6 rioter cases, which President Trump has since issued pardons over.
Prosecutors told the judge their evidence against Cole included a four-hour-long interview he had with investigators Thursday, as well as surveillance footage, cell phone data and other evidence.
Sources told The Post earlier Friday that the suspect has confessed to the accusations against him.
Cole faces up to 10 years behind bars on the first count and up to 20 years on the second if convicted.
Cole of Woodbridge, Va., was arrested nearly five years after he allegedly left bombs he began making in 2019 outside the DNC and RNC headquarters in DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on the eve of the electoral votes being certified in the 2020 election.
Video footage showed Cole walking around DC the night the devices were left behind, authorities have said.
The explosive devices were discovered the next day, Jan. 6, 2021, amidst the chaos of droves of Trump supporters descending on the Capitol as Congress was finalizing the vote.
Cole allegedly began gathering the items he needed to build the bombs beginning in 2019 from stores around northern Virginia, including eight Home Depot locations, Micro Center, Lowes and Walmart.
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They were made out of steel pipes, nine-volt batteries and other kitchen items, prosecutors claim.
Cole’s grandma Loretta continued to defend her grandson to The Post on Friday.
“He did not do it. He did not,” she insisted.
“He’s a good kid. He’s a 30-year-old man, and he has the mind of a 16-year-old. They are railroading him. I’m with him every day, and I’ve never seen any evidence of this. I’m really floored. I don’t know how to take it.”
The grandma had said a day earlier that Cole was “almost autistic-like.”
A $500,000 reward was offered for any information that led to Cole’s arrest under the administration of former President Joe Biden and the monetary reward was renewed again by the Trump administration in October.
FBI Director Kash Patel blasted the FBI under the Biden administration for allegedly sitting on evidence that could have led to Cole’s arrest sooner.
Cole is due back in court for a detention hearing Dec. 15.
His lawyer declined to comment Friday.
