Hegseth Scrutiny, Jan 6th Pipe Bomb Suspect, Texas Redistricting Ruling

Lawmakers saw a video of a second U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean.
And the public has seen a report on the Defense Secretary sharing sensitive information. What have we learned?

And what questions remain? I'm Michelle Martin with Steve Inscape, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Federal agents accused a suspect of planting two pipe bombs on the eve of the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Let me be clear: there was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work. What led investigators to him?

Also, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court to side with Texas Republicans. The lower court found that a new congressional map probably discriminated by race.

What reasons did the court give to set that aside? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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Members of Congress have now seen a video showing the second U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean.
Democrats and Republicans interpreted it differently, but a few things became clear.

Democrats said they were disturbed by the second hit on a boat allegedly carrying drugs, killing two men after the boat was disabled.

Republicans said the strike was justified because the two survivors of the first strike might have continued continued on to their destination.

Yet even Republicans described the survivors in a desperate situation. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said the survivors were, quote, trying to flip a boat, suggesting the boat had capsized after a U.S.

missile strike, which other lawmakers confirmed. That is one of two big stories focused on the Pentagon, and NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman is covering both.
Tom, good morning. Hey, Steve.

Okay, so let's get this other story out of the way first. An Inspector General report is now public about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sharing information about an attack on the signal texting app.

What did you learn by reading the report?

Well, it said that two to four hours before the airstrikes by American F-18 pilots, Secretary Hegseth, he was getting a classified briefing from General Eric Harrilla about the upcoming attacks on Houthi rebels.

A lot of detail about the number of planes, the targets, the timing.

And while Hegseth was getting this, he was sharing it on a signal chat with other officials and on another chat with his wife, his brother, and his lawyer.

None of those three had security clearances and all of this was secret information, the report said.

And let's just disclose, as we do, that NPR CEO Catherine Maher also chairs the board of the Signal Foundation, which has a subsidiary that makes this app.

But what has been the reaction to the Inspector General? Well, Secretary Hegseth's spokesman said the IG report exonerates him. That is not true.
Nothing in the 76 pages says anything close to that.

It does say that the Pentagon should be aware of proper procedures on the handling of classified information. It only states facts, Steve, not what should happen next.
All right.

So let's now talk about this second strike on the boat in the Caribbean.

What are lawmakers saying and what are you learning now that they have seen this video and also heard from the commander involved?

Well, Admiral Mitch Bradley, the top commander overseeing Central and South America, appeared behind closed doors to explain what happened.

Lawmakers said he defended that second missile strike, saying basically the survivors of the initial strike were still kind of being active,

trying to reach their comrades by radio, trying to corral drugs on the boat that was nearly destroyed.

So Bradley again ordered this second missile strike to kill them and then two more to sink the boat.

Secretary Hegset said he was only there for the first missile strike on the boat and didn't see the others. He had meetings, he said.

Now, lawmakers are asking, you know, did this second missile strike result in an illegal killing, a war crime?

Because, Steve, the Pentagon's Law of War manual lays out what is an illegal order that no service member has to obey. And the manual has this example.

Get this, quote, for example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.

Tom, granting the differing interpretations, it does seem that everyone came out of the closed-door video session saying this boat was severely damaged at the least and even capsized.

Any doubt about that?

I don't think there is.

Senator Tom Cotton said these guys, the two survivors who are trying to flip over this capsized boat, Congressman Adam Smith and others said, listen, they were just shirtless guys and not much of this boat was above water.

So that's why it's important, I think, for the public to see this video. It should be released.
NPS Tom Bowman, thanks so much. You're welcome.

The night before a mob of President Trump's supporters stormed the U.S.

Capitol on January 6th of 2021, somebody placed two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Party headquarters, which are nearby.

For almost five years, the FBI tried to find the culprit, but came up empty until Thursday when the Justice Department announced that federal agents had arrested a 30-year-old man suspected of planting those devices.

NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this, and he's with us now. Good morning, Ryan.
Good morning.

So, what can you tell us about this person who's now in custody and what's he charged with? Well, his name is Brian Cole Jr. He is, as you guys mentioned, 30 years old.

He was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, which is about 20 or so miles south of D.C.

Court papers say that he lives there with his mom and that he works in the office of a bail bondsman in Northern Virginia.

Now, as for the charges, he's charged with transporting an explosive device with intent to kill, as well as attempted malicious destruction with explosive materials.

Those are the charges as of this morning, but officials said yesterday that this is still very much an active investigation, and prosecutors could bring more charges down the road.

So, for almost five years, the FBI has been trying to find the person who planted these bombs. Did officials say yesterday what, after all this time, led them to Cole?

Right, this has been a massive investigation to try to solve this mystery over the years.

And remember, these pipe bombs didn't go off on January 6th, but they did draw police away from the Capitol that day, the day that Rioters stormed the building.

Now, officials said yesterday it wasn't a new tip that broke this case open. Here's Attorney General Pam Bondi speaking to reporters yesterday.

Let me be clear: there was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work.

Now, FBI Director Cash Patel said the Bureau brought in a new team of investigators and experts to re-examine all of the evidence that the FBI had collected over the past four plus years.

And that new team sifted through all of the data. And Patel said that's what led to new investigative leads, including a critical forensic lead, he said.
And ultimately, the road led to Cole.

What evidence do the prosecutors have that allegedly ties Cole to these pipe bombs?

Well, an FBI affidavit says that records of financial transactions show that Cole bought items that were the same as the components used to build the pipe bombs that were found.

So galvanized pipes, end caps used to close the ends of the pipe bombs, steel wool, the same kind of white kitchen timers and red-black electrical wires.

There's also cell phone location data that shows that Cole's cell phone was pinging cell towers in the area where the pipe bombs were left on the night that they were placed there.

And then the affidavit says that a license plate leader picked up Cole's car getting off the interstate near the Capitol on the evening of January 5th, just a half hour or so before the bombs were put in place.

Now, people might remember there have been a lot of conspiracy theories about these pipe bombs. Who left them? Why?

Now that the suspect is in custody, do we know anything about the motive or whether these bombs were connected to the attack on the Capitol?

Well, those really are the million-dollar questions, and unfortunately, no, at this point, we don't know answers to those.

Ironically, one of the conspiracy theories that was out there, that the pipe bombs were an inside job by the FBI, that was pushed by Dan Bongino when he was a podcaster.

Dan Bongino is now the deputy director of the FBI, and he got a lot of credit yesterday for this arrest. Now, Cole is expected to appear in court here in D.C.

later today, and answers to a lot of these outstanding questions are most likely to come in court over the weeks and months to come as the Justice Department prosecutes this case.

That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
Thank you.

Okay, the Supreme Court has given President Trump and the Republican Party a boost in their fight to skew the results of congressional elections.

Yesterday, the court said Texas may use a new congressional map designed to give Republicans a shot at five extra House seats in next year's election.

But the court turned aside a lower court ruling that found a likelihood that this new map is racially discriminatory.

NPR's Hansi Lo Wong has been following the gerrymandering battle, which, of course, is nationwide. Many states now involved.
Hansi, good morning.

Good morning steve okay so what was the lower court ruling that the supreme court says doesn't apply they paused well this was a three judge panel that the majority ruling written by a judge nominated by president trump the supreme court has put a pause on this order and this order by the lower court found that this congressional map texas passed back in august is likely unconstitutional because it discriminates against voters based on race this lower court ruling cited a letter that the justice department wrote to texas officials and multiple public statements by key Republican state lawmakers involved in developing the map.

And I'll suggest Texas lawmakers pass this map to eliminate existing districts in Texas where black and Latino voters together make up the majority. Oh, that's interesting.

Why then did the Supreme Court say, no, you're wrong, go ahead and use the map?

Well, a majority of conservative justices on the Supreme Court basically sided with Texas state lawmakers who have said they were not motivated by race and were driven instead to draw new districts that are more likely to elect Republicans.

The court's majority wrote that the lower court ruling, quote, failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith.

And the majority also said the lower court, quote, improperly inserted itself into Texas's primary campaign by releasing its ruling last month in the middle of a candidate filing period.

I was reading the rather short ruling on this, rather short opinion, and I am fascinated by that idea that the court should have presumed that the Texas legislature did not mean to do it, that that should be the presumption going in.

Was there any dissent in this?

Yes, the court's three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan wrote their dissenting opinion.

It said that the court's majority decision to allow Texas to use this map for next year's midterms, quote, ensures that many Texas citizens for no good reason will be placed in electoral districts because of their race, and that violates the Constitution.

I was interested also that the court ruling acknowledged the broader context here and said this has now spread to be a redistricting fight in state after state after state across the country.

Where do things stand?

There's a lot going on, but let's start with California.

Voters in that state approved a Democratic-friendly congressional map last month to counter the Texas map that President Trump pushed for to help Republicans and the Supreme Court is now allowing.

And this month, a federal court is holding a hearing on whether to block California's map for the midterms.

Last week, a different federal court ruled to allow North Carolina to use a new Republican-friendly map. Missouri's Republican-friendly map is still facing lawsuits and a referendum effort.

And I'm keeping watch for potential new maps coming out of Florida, Indiana, New York, and Virginia. Busy man, is the Supreme Court done with this topic?

No, there's a major voting rights case I'm also watching about Louisiana's congressional map.

The Supreme Court may rule on that very soon, and depending on what and when the Court decides in that case, there may be another wave of congressional gerrymandering, particularly in southern states.

NPR's Hanzi Lo Wong, thanks for the update. You're welcome, Steve.

And that's up for us for this Friday, December 5th. I'm Steve Inskee.
And I'm Michelle Martin.

As ICE continues its nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the families being targeted are planning for a possible separation.

If a parent is detained, those children are vulnerable, sometimes they're left at school, no one's there to pick them up.

And without the proper legal documents in place, the children could end up in foster care.

This weekend on the Sunday story, NPR's Jasmine Garst takes us into the lives of immigrant families who are living in fear. Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast.

Today's Up First was edited by Andrew Sussman, Anamu Konanoff, Ben Swayze, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Buch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler.
Join us next time.

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