Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was arraigned April 27 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on charges stemming from the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. The government charged Allen with three counts: attempting to assassinate the president, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony. A conviction on the attempted assassination count carries a potential sentence of up to life in prison.
According to court documents, Allen made a hotel reservation at the Washington Hilton on April 6 for the nights of April 24 through 26, and traveled by train from near Los Angeles to Chicago and then on to Washington, D.C., arriving April 24. At approximately 8:40 p.m. on April 25, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the hotel's Terrace Level leading to the ballroom, ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun, and a gunshot was heard. A Secret Service officer wearing a ballistic vest was shot once in the chest. The officer drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at Allen, who fell to the ground and sustained minor injuries but was not struck by gunfire. Prosecutors stated Allen carried a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a .38 caliber semi-automatic pistol, along with three knives and other items. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump were safely evacuated from the dinner, and none of the attendees were seriously injured.
Officials described a written manifesto Allen left behind in which he stated he intended to target officials in the Trump administration. The complaint alleged Allen wrote that administration officials were his targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest, that Secret Service agents were targets only if necessary and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible, and that hotel employees and guests were not targets at all. Shortly before the attack, Allen sent a scheduled email to family members and a former employer explaining the actions he was about to take, signing it with the self-applied moniker "Friendly Federal Assassin." Allen holds a mechanical engineering degree from the California Institute of Technology and a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen's prosecution created an unusual posture at the Justice Department: the officials overseeing the case, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, were themselves present at the dinner and may have been among the intended targets. The dinner was not designated a National Special Security Event, a Department of Homeland Security designation that would have made the Secret Service the lead federal agency for security operations. The incident was the third apparent attempt on Trump's life since 2024, following the July 2024 attempt near Butler, Pennsylvania, and the September 2024 attempt at Trump's golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Allen's defense counsel agreed to keep their client detained pending trial but signaled a willingness to contest the intent element, filing papers arguing the government's case rests on inferences about Allen's mental state and noting that Allen's writings never mentioned Trump by name. U.S. Attorney Pirro stated that additional charges are anticipated as the investigation proceeds. Prosecutors also released surveillance video of the incident, and Pirro stated publicly that there is no evidence the Secret Service officer was struck by friendly fire, a question that had remained open following the initial charging documents.
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