Federal authorities have announced the arrests of four alleged members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group suspected of planning coordinated bombing attacks in Southern California. The arrests took place last week in the desert east of Los Angeles. According to a federal criminal complaint, the suspects were preparing to test improvised explosive devices for planned bombings. They are members of an offshoot of a group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group allegedly plotted to set off a series of bombings on New Year’s Eve and target ICE agents and vehicles.

Top law enforcement officials in the Trump administration had a clear message when they announced the arrest of a man charged with placing pipe bombs outside political party headquarters in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. The message was that people coming to the nation’s capital to attack citizens and institutions of democracy would be held accountable. Yet Justice Department leaders who announced the arrest Thursday were silent about the violence that had taken place when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and clashed with police on Jan. 6, 2021, one day after the pipe bombs were discovered.

A prosecutor says the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack told investigators he was “disappointed” in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told ABC News Live that she believes it is “unmistakable” that Brian Cole Jr. was responsible for placing the pipe bombs on Jan. 5, 2021. Pirro also suggested Cole may have been motivated by claims by Trump and his Republican allies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Cole remains in jail after his initial court appearance Friday.

The man accused of planting a pair of pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack confessed to the act in interviews with investigators. That's according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press. The people said Brian Cole Jr. also indicated that he believed the election was stolen and expressed views supportive of President Donald Trump. The details add to a still-emerging portrait of the 30-year-old suspect from Woodbridge, Virginia, and it was not immediately clear what other information or perspectives he may have shared while cooperating with law enforcement following his arrest on Thursday.

The FBI has arrested a man accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack. It's an abrupt breakthrough in an investigation that for years flummoxed law enforcement and spawned conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021. The suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Brian J. Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. Key questions remain unanswered after his arrest on explosives charges, including a possible motive and what connection if any the act had to the assault on the Capitol the following day by supporters of President Donald Trump.