The man accused of opening fire at a Washington dinner attended by Donald Trump was charged on Monday with attempting to assassinate the US president.
Cole Tomas Allen (31), of Torrance, California, could face a potential life sentence if convicted.
Allen wore a blue jail-issue V-neck shirt and trousers at his first appearance in Washington 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.
Allen’s hands were cuffed behind his back as US Marshalls led him into and out of the courtroom.
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At the hearing, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said the weapons Allen brought to Washington included a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and three knives.
“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump,” Ballantine said.
He also faces charges of illegally transporting a firearm across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, US magistrate judge Matthew Sharbaugh said at a court hearing.
Allen did not respond to the allegations at the brief hearing. He said he had a master’s degree in computer science. Defence lawyer Tezira Abe said at the hearing that Allen had no prior arrests or convictions.
The judge asked Allen if he had taken any drugs in the last day or so, to which Allen responded no.
Sharbaugh ordered Allen to be held in custody until at least Thursday, when he scheduled a separate court hearing to consider prosecutors’ request that he be detained pending trial.
Allen booked a room at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the dinner took place, and travelled from California to Washington by train, officials have said.
He left a manifesto with family members referring to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and discussing plans to target senior Trump administration officials, who were present in the hotel ballroom, officials said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday described the Saturday night attack as the third major assassination attempt against Trump, after two attempts on his life in 2024. She compared the rhetoric in the manifesto to criticism of Trump by his political opponents.
“Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many,” Leavitt said. “The entire Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist.”
Prominent elected Democrats have condemned the shooting.
The shooting on Saturday rattled the press dinner, a prominent event on Washington’s social calendar, sending attendees scrambling under tables and prompting law enforcement to whisk senior officials out of the room. Trump, who was set to deliver remarks later in the evening, was rushed off the stage by security personnel after shots were fired.
Video footage Trump posted online showed the suspect sprinting through a hallway outside the ballroom.
US officials have said the suspect was subdued just inside a security perimeter and have touted his apprehension as a law enforcement success. But the incident has revived concerns about the safety of Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign, and other US officials.
Allen, who authorities said was armed with a handgun and multiple knives, in addition to the shotgun, was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated following the shooting.
Trump had agreed to attend this year’s dinner for the first time as a sitting president after boycotting previous years.
Several top members of his cabinet, including vice- president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio were also in attendance, along with thousands of members of the media.
Trump called the attacker a “lone wolf whack job” as he returned to the White House on Saturday night in an extraordinary news conference soon after the incident, with the president and several members of the press still in their ballroom attire.
After leaving the same hotel where former president Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, Trump told reporters that being president was “a dangerous profession”. “When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” he said.
“It’s always shocking when something like this happens,” Trump went on. “I can’t be so concerned that I can’t function.” - Reuters. Additional reporting: Guardian
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