The 31-year-old man accused of storming the White House Correspondents Association dinner armed with guns and knives pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to kill President Donald Trump and shot a Secret Service officer.
Cole Tomas Allen was shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit when he appeared in federal court Monday morning. Allen did not speak during the hearing, with one of his attorneys entering the plea on his behalf.
Allen’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to drop at least two top Justice Department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.
McFadden didn’t rule from the bench on that question but asked Allen’s attorneys to elaborate on the possible scope of their recusal request.
A Secret Service officer was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest during the April 25 attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted and ultimately prompted an early end to one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.
Allen, a computer engineer from Torrance, California, arrived at the Washington Hilton hotel ahead of the event, after traveling by train from the West Coast to Chicago on April 21, and then taking another train to the U.S. capital on April 24, according to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
He was carrying an array of weapons at the time of the attack, including a 12-gauge pump-action Mossberg shotgun, a .38 semi-automatic pistol and “at least three knives and all kinds of paraphernalia,” Pirro said.
The president posted surveillance footage of the suspect allegedly running past the hotel’s security checkpoint. Trump said he did so for “transparency” and to highlight the speed with which agents reacted to the threat.
In his manifesto, the suspect allegedly mocked the hotel’s security, saying it was focused solely on the hotel's perimeter.
“Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again,” he wrote in part.
