{"id":211827,"date":"2026-04-27T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:20:15","slug":"whcd-shooting-suspect-cole-allen-charged-with-trying-to-assassinate-president-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211827\/","title":{"rendered":"WHCD shooting suspect Cole Allen charged with trying to assassinate President Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The\u00a0suspected White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner shooter\u00a0<\/a>Cole Allen was charged with trying to assassinate President Trump on Saturday night \u2014 as he made a defiant first appearance in court.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old accused madman\u00a0spoke loudly and confidently answering a judge\u2019s questions in federal court in Washington, DC, as he was hit with the charges of attempted assassination of the president, transportation of a firearm across state lines to commit a felony and discharging a gun.<\/p>\n

This courtroom sketch depicts Cole Tomas Allen, left, the California man arrested in the shooting incident at the correspondents dinner in Washington, seen appearing before Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, in federal court, Monday. AP<\/p>\n

Cole Tomas Allen also had this handgun on him. REUTERS<\/p>\n

He faces life in prison if convicted of the top charge.<\/p>\n

Allen \u2014 who walked into the courtroom unshackled with a somber look and wearing a blue jail jumpsuit \u2014 answered\u00a0Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh\u00a0when asked his name, loudly saying: \u201cCole Tomas Allen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CalTech grad also said his age and told the judge he has a \u201cmaster\u2019s degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the hearing,\u00a0DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro \u2014 whose office is prosecuting Allen \u2014 said that his manifesto made clear he wanted to kill Trump, and any other official he could.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be additional charges as this investigation continues to unfold,\u201d Pirro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole Allen, 31, charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

The CalTech grad also said his age and told the judge he has a \u201cmaster\u2019s degree.\u201d Cole Allen\/ Linkedin<\/p>\n

At the hearing, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said\u00a0Allen traveled across state boundaries \u201ccarrying a 12-gauge pump-action\u00a0shotgun,\u201d along with a \u201c.38-caliber semi automatic pistol and three knives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen will remain behind bars until a bail hearing Thursday.<\/p>\n

Allen hasn\u2019t entered a plea yet since he\u2019s currently facing a criminal complaint rather than an indictment \u2014 which he\u2019s likely to be charged with down the road.<\/p>\n

Pirro looked on from the front seat of the courtroom gallery during the hearing, which lasted less than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Cole Allen appeared in a federal court in Washington DC Monday.<\/p>\n

She noted after the hearing that Allen \u201cwas not injured other than a scrape on his knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche at the press conference\u00a0laid out a timeline of Allen\u2019s movements, detailing how he traveled for three days by train from his home in Torrance, Calif., to DC, via Chicago before checking into the\u00a0 Washington Hilton the day before the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner after booking a room there.<\/p>\n

The next night, Allen attempted to get into the correspondents\u2019 dinner through a security checkpoint a floor above the ballroom where the event was taking place, Blanche said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ran through the magnetometer, holding a long gun. As he did so, US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot,\u201d Blanche said. \u201cOne Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Director Kash Patel at the news conference touted the agency\u2019s quick response and transparency with the public.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cYou know almost every single thing we know,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

Trump, Melania and other top officials had to be evacuated and the dinner, meant to toast the Washington press corps, was called off and set to be rescheduled for roughly a month later.<\/p>\n

Allen allegedly opened fire as he attempted to bust into the ballroom where President Trump and first lady Melania were attending the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. truthsocial\/@realDonaldTrump<\/p>\n

Trump and other top officials had to be evacuated. AP<\/p>\n

Allen allegedly\u00a0sent an unhinged anti-President Trump manifesto<\/a>\u00a0to his family 10 minutes before he unleashed his fury \u2014 the letter so alarming that it prompted his brother to call the New London, Conn., police.<\/p>\n

Referring to himself as the \u201cFriendly Federal Assassin,\u201d Allen\u00a0wrote he was targeting top officials<\/a>\u00a0in the Republican administration \u2014 though he specified he didn\u2019t want to kill FBI Director Kash Patel or other members of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,\u201d Allen wrote, in an apparent reference to Trump.<\/p>\n

In addition to the political rant, Allen also bashed the \u201cinsane\u201d lack of security at the hotel \u2014 where he was able to waltz with weapons that went undetected.<\/p>\n

Allen was armed with a shotgun and knives.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance. I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Allen is allegedly part of a group called \u201cThe Wide Awakes\u201d \u2014 a revival of a youth organization from the Civil War-era that adopted the stance of the Republican Party of the time, including opposing slavery.<\/p>\n

Blanche at the press conference said the Department of Justice was investigating the group.<\/p>\n

Allen \u2014 who graduated from Caltech with a degree in engineering and a master\u2019s in computer science \u2014 worked for tutoring and test prep company C2 Education and had been named \u201cTeacher of the Month,\u201d in December 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The\u00a0suspected White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner shooter\u00a0Cole Allen was charged with trying to assassinate President Trump on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[83162,2803,36777,9,11,10,3980,58],"class_list":["post-211827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2026-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting","tag-court","tag-donald-trump-jr","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-shootings","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}