Alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooter Charged With Attempting To Assassinate the President

The alleged gunman who attempted to attack President Trump and administration officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Cole Allen, has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump — a crime that carries the maximum penalty of life in prison. Government lawyers say Mr. Allen was carrying a shotgun, a semiautomatic handgun, and three knives when he was caught. The attack occurred shortly after the dinner program began at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Speaker Mike Johnson, among others, were swiftly removed from the ballroom shortly after shots were fired. Mr. Allen is accused of sprinting past a security checkpoint just outside of the ballroom where the dinner was being held with a firearm in his possession. He faces three charges related to the attack — attempting to assassinate the president, traveling across state lines with a firearm, and using a firearm while attempting to commit violence. At a federal courthouse on Monday afternoon, U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro sat in the front row of the courtroom behind the prosecutors. Mr. Allen entered the room minutes later wearing a light blue jumpsuit. Judge Matthew Sharbaugh, a magistrate jurist, who presided over the hearing, set a detention hearing for Thursday morning. A different magistrate judge will then rule on the question of whether or not Mr. Allen will be held in jail for the duration of the trial. Mr. Trump himself says he was not terribly afraid after the shots rang out about 20 minutes after he entered the room. In an interview with “60 Minutes” on Tuesday night, the president said he wanted to restart the dinner rather than let Mr. Allen interrupt the proceedings, though Secret Service agents advised against it. According to a manifesto sent to his family members shortly before the shooting occurred, Mr. Allen said he would try to take out administration officials because he believed Mr. Trump is a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor.”Mr. Allen wrote that he did not want to hurt anyone who does not work for Mr. Trump, though he did write that he would do so if he deemed it to be necessary in order to take out administration officials. He also mused about the morality of killing random attendees, writing that those in the room had in some way tacit approval to Mr. Trump’s actions by attending a dinner with him.

Alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooter Charged With Attempting To Assassinate the President

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