White House Correspondents' Dinner Suspect Charged with Attempted Assassination of Trump

The California man who allegedly opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening is facing at least three criminal charges, including the attempted assassination of President Trump.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly charged at a Secret Service checkpoint with multiple weapons, firing shots — one of which hit a Secret Service member in his bullet proof vest — before he was tackled and taken into custody during the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening.

President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and numerous key administration officials — as well as some 2,600 other politicians, celebrities, and journalists — were in attendance at the dinner when Allen turned up at the security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives.

In addition to the attempted assassination charge, Allen also faces charges of transporting and discharging a firearm, prosecutors said at his arraignment on Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C. The assassination charge carries a potential life sentence.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said prosecutors expect Allen will face additional charges as the investigation continues.

Assistant U.S. attorney Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen “traveled across multiple state lines with a firearm” and “attempted to assassinate the president with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun.”

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday afternoon that Allen made a reservation for April 24-26 at the Washington Hilton. He departed Los Angeles via train on April 21 and traveled to Chicago before arriving in Washington, D.C., on the afternoon of April 24. The evening of the WHCD, Allen approached the security checkpoint on the terrace level of the hotel — one floor above the ballroom where the dinner was being held — and ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun and shot a U.S. Secret Service agent. The agent who was shot fired five times at Allen, who was not shot but fell to the ground and was quickly arrested.

“From what we know from video surveillance and from witnesses who were there, (he) barely got past the perimeter,” Blanche said. “He was immediately subdued, and, yes, he got off a couple shots.”

While some have questioned whether the incident was a security failing on the part of the Secret Service, Blanche has pushed back.

"We should recognize what did not happen: law enforcement did not fail," Blanche said. "They did exactly what they are trained to do. This was not an accident. It was the result, as we know now, of preparation."

Allen apparently sent a manifesto to family members moments before his attempted attack, writing, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. . . . I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.”

He also described his “expected rules of engagement,” writing: “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” He appeared to be referring to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Later, he added: “I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.”

Allen is a self-employed video game developer and part-time teacher from Torrance, Calif. He graduated in 2017 with an engineering degree from the California Institute of Technology and went on to work for a tutoring firm based in Torrance called C2 Education.

In the lead up to his attempted attack, Allen took to Bluesky to share his gripes with the administration over everything from the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to the war in Iran.

Blanche said the DOJ is investigating left-wing groups allegedly affiliated with Allen.

The shooting occurred just minutes after Trump took his seat at the event, which marked the first time he had attended the annual dinner as president, after having opted to skip it during his first term in office.

Trump and White House Correspondents Association president Weija Jiang initially told attendees that the event would resume after law enforcement arrested Allen, but later clarified that law enforcement had asked that everyone leave the premises, per investigative protocol. Trump said the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days, and instead held a press conference at the White House on Saturday evening.

"Violence has no place in civic life," Blanche said on Monday. "It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or to intimidate those who serve them. And it certainly cannot continue to be used against the president of the United States."