Washington — Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Torrance resident Cole Thomas Allen with attempting to assassinate President Trump after breaking into the security of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Dinner in Washington on Saturday.
The domestic terrorism charge, announced during a brief hearing in federal court in Washington and detailed in a subsequent charging document, carries a possible prison sentence for the Caltech graduate and high school tutor.
Prosecutors also accused Allen of carrying firearms across state borders while traveling by train from California to Washington and of discharging a firearm during the incident at the Washington Hilton, where authorities said a federal agent was shot in his ballistic vest.
In charging documentProsecutors also detailed an email Allen allegedly sent to family members as he was preparing to break the ice at the event, in which he allegedly wrote that top Trump administration officials were his targets, but he was willing to “go through” others at the event to reach them.
Allen was taken down by agents shortly after he ran from them and before running down the stairs and entering the ballroom, where Trump and other top administration officials were sitting. No officers were injured during the incident, which the White House described as the latest in a series of attempts on Trump’s life.
Federal public defenders appointed to represent Allen did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Allen could not be reached for comment. A person previously reached at the Allen family home in Torrance — which was searched by the FBI over the weekend — declined to comment.
At the morning hearing, Asst. US Atty. Jocelyn Ballentine said Allen “traveled across multiple state lines with a gun” and “attempted to assassinate the President with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.”
Top administration officials – including Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel – repeated those claims in subsequent news briefings. Blanche described Allen as a serious threat, while also downplaying his closeness to the President and the possibility that he could ever harm administration officials.
“Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they were trained to do,” said Blanch. He said Allen either fell or was pinned to the ground during law enforcement gunfire.
Blanch and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the president because of his writings — which Trump and others in the administration have called a “manifesto.”
Blanch said authorities seized devices from Allen’s hotel room and his home in Torrance that could add additional context to his motivations, but authorities were unwilling to discuss what might be found on those devices. Pirro said additional charges are pending.
Blanch stressed that the investigation into the incident is still in its early stages. For example, it is still unclear who shot the Secret Service agent.
“We’re still looking into that,” Blanche said.
In the charging document, prosecutors included the text of the manifesto – an email document they alleged Allen set to automatically send to family members when entering a secure area at the hotel, in which he announced that Trump administration officials were his targets.
In the emailed document, which the author titled “Apology and Explanation,” Allen reportedly wrote that Trump administration officials would be “prioritized from highest ranking to lowest” for the way he targeted them.
According to the charging document, he wrote, “If it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that the majority of people chose* to attend the speech of a pedophile, rapist and traitor* and are thus complicit) to reach the goal I would still go to the majority of people here, but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Allen reportedly wrote that Secret Service agents were “targeted only when necessary, and incapacitated non-fatally if possible”; The police, hotel staff and hotel guests were not his targets; And according to the document, he would use buckshot to “minimize casualties.”
“I don’t expect a pardon, but if I saw another way to get this close, I would take it,” he wrote, according to the documents. Allen, the tutor in Torrance, also apologized to his family, colleagues and students, but said he felt he had to act as a US citizen as represented by the Trump administration.
He reportedly wrote, “What my deputies do reflects on me. And I no longer want to allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to get their hands on my crimes.”
The charging document also describes the initial moments when Allen entered the secure area and a Secret Service agent allegedly shot him in his ballistic vest.
Prosecutors wrote that federal agents “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen ran through a metal detector holding a long gun, that a Secret Service officer identified only by the initials “VG” in a ballistic vest was “shot once in the chest”, and that he “pulled out his service weapon and fired several times at Allen, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not hit.”
The document alleges Allen was found to be in possession of a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol.
Prosecutors requested to keep Allen in custody. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J., who presided over the hearing. Sharbaugh scheduled a second hearing for Thursday morning to determine whether Allen will remain in custody.
Federal public defenders assigned to Allen requested representation after submitting a financial affidavit to the court stating that Allen has no prior criminal record, which is a factor in determining how a criminal suspect is handled before trial.
Those lawyers — Tejira Abe and Eugene Ohm — did not respond to requests for comment after the hearing.
Allen, wearing a royal blue jumpsuit, showed no apparent injuries and said little during the hearing other than identifying himself and acknowledging that he understood the legal proceedings.
Allen reportedly outlined his disdain for Trump administration officials and his intention to kill them in a manifesto written before the reporters’ dinner. According to the New York Post, in that document Allen described himself as a “friendly federal killer” who would not hesitate to shoot any of the more than 2,600 people who would reach out to authorities.
The event was attended by hundreds of journalists and several Trump administration officials – including Vice President J.D. Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.
Allen had booked a room at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place.
Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday that he was “not concerned” by the gunfire. “We live in a crazy world,” he said.
Trump, who has been dogged by questions about his relationship with slain sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein during his second term, bristled at the shooter’s references to “pedophile” and “rapist” in the manifesto.
“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump said in an interview with CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell. “I’m not a pedophile.”
He also criticized O’Donnell for quoting that part of the manifesto and said it was inappropriate to do so.
During an earlier press conference on Monday, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said the White House was considering whether to modify Secret Service protocols for large events attended by the president, despite satisfaction with the agency’s performance at Saturday’s event.
Leavitt said the Secret Service successfully killed the suspect and evacuated the President, First Lady and Vice President from the room within minutes.
Still, with major celebrations planned around the country’s 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the Olympics, discussions on a possible update of Secret Service plans under the leadership of Chief of Staff Susie Wills will begin this week, Leavitt said. He said that for security reasons, the results of those discussions would likely be kept secret.
“If adjustments are needed to protect the president, they will be made,” he said.
Leavitt also called on Congress to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service, after a political impasse has led to a historic 73-day lapse in such funding.
Levitt also suggested that anti-Trump rhetoric from the president’s opponents played a role in his being targeted and needed to be toned down.
“It’s inspiring these crazy people across the country to target not only the president, but those who work for him and those who support him,” Leavitt said.
“No one has faced more gunfire and violence in recent years than President Trump,” he said. “This political violence stems from the systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators — yes, elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media —.”
Blanche reiterated that argument — placing blame on the media, many of whom were in the ballroom with Trump.
He said, “When you have journalists, when you have media that is overly critical and calls the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, we should not be surprised that this type of rhetoric occurs.”
