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Prosecutor says Cole Tomas Allen ‘attempted to assassinate the president of the United States’ in Saturday attack.
Federal authorities in the United States have charged the suspect who allegedly shot a US Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a press gala attended by Donald Trump with attempting to assassinate the US president.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint, prosecutors announced on Monday.
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In the case of a conviction, the attempted assassination of Trump carries out a sentence of up to life in prison.
Allen wore a blue prison jumpsuit at his first appearance in Washington, DC, federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians in the US capital.
“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump,” prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said in court.
Allen has not yet responded to the allegations. Seated at the defence table flanked by US Marshals, Allen said he would answer all questions truthfully and that he had a master’s degree in computer science.
US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered Allen detained while the case moves forward. Sharbaugh scheduled another hearing over Allen’s continued detention for Thursday.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, said further charges could be filed against Allen as the investigation proceeds.
“Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States, with the defendant making clear what his intent was – and that intent was to bring down as many of the high ranking cabinet officials as he could,” Pirro told reporters on Monday.
She cited an alleged manifesto written by the suspect, saying that his targets were administration officials “prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest”.
Pirro added that Allen allegedly had a semi-automatic pistol, a shotgun and three knives. She said authorities belive the guns were purchased in California.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington.
He arrived in the US capital on April 24, a day before the dinner, and checked into the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event would take place.
According to Blanche, during the dinner, Allen approached a security check point on the terrace level of the hotel, one level above the ballroom where Trump was.
“He ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot,” Blanche said.
“One Secret Service officer was shot in the chest but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked. This heroic officer who was hit, fired five times at Allen, who was not shot, but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested.”
The shooting, considered to be the third assassination attempt against Trump since 2024, has rocked US politics, with the White House accusing the US president’s Democratic rivals of inspiring political violence with their verbal attacks on the administration.
“The deranged lies and smears against the president, his family, his supporters have led crazy people to believe crazy things, and they are inspired to commit violence because of those words,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier on Monday.
“It has to stop.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump does not see the incident at the Washington Hilton hotel as a security failure.
“You had a perpetrator who tried to breach the security parameter that was set up by Secret Service, and he was running as fast as he could and was immediately neutralised moments later,” Leavitt said.
