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Prosecutor says Cole Thomas Allen ‘attempted to assassinate the president of the United States’ in Saturday attack.
Published On 27 Apr 2026
Federal authorities in the United States have charged the suspect who allegedly shot a 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, prosecutoss announced on Monday.
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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 after the shooting that the suspect was “intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could”.
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 added that Trump does not see the incident 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.
More to come…