Jan. 6 pipe devices were not bombs, could not have exploded, defense expert contends

The alleged pipe bombs placed at two sites on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, were not capable of exploding and thus were not bombs at all, an explosives expert said in a new federal criminal case filing.

The devices, found along the rear of the Capitol Hill Club and under a bench at the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, lacked the needed chemicals and proper fusing system that would have made them explosives, according to Brennan Phillips, a 20-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

‘The two suspected pipe bombs in question do not contain an explosive filler capable of causing an explosion.’

In a report created for pipe-bomb suspect Brian J. Cole Jr.’s defense team, Phillips rejected the FBI’s five-year-long