Cole Allen remains in federal custody in Washington, D.C., after prosecutors say he attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Earlier today, the 31-year-old Torrance, Calif., man was removed from suicide precautions after his lawyers filed an emergency motion challenging his conditions inside the D.C. jail. Monday’s scheduled hearing was canceled because the jail lifted the restrictions before the judge had a chance to rule.
Allen faces three federal charges: attempting to assassinate the president, transporting a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
The attempted assassination count carries the possibility of life in prison if Allen is convicted. Prosecutors say he rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton while armed with a Mossberg pump-action shotgun, a handgun, and knives.
The underlying facts make the jailhouse shift even harder to ignore. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said ballistic evidence tied buckshot from Allen’s shotgun to the Secret Service agent’s vest. The agent survived because of his ballistic protection. Allen never reached the ballroom, where President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump, and other guests were attending the dinner.
Allen’s lawyers didn’t argue the larger criminal case in their suicide-watch motion. They argued about jail conditions. Federal public defender A.J. Kramer said the restrictions had become punishment, not protection.
When he was initially booked into the jail facility on April 27, Allen was assigned a “safe cell,” described as a padded room with 24-hour lockdown procedures and a requirement to wear “a vest akin to a strait jacket,” according to a filing by his lawyers in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.He was then downgraded to “suicide precautions,” which means Allen could still not make phone calls, receive visits from anyone aside from his legal team, or spend time outside his cell except for legal visits or showers, with an escort, the filing states. A nurse on Friday recommended those precautions be ended, but they remained in place as of a visit by one of his public defense lawyers that day, the filing states.Allen’s status “amounts to punishment” and denies him resources such as the use of a jail tablet, “which would permit him to communicate with loved ones outside of the jail,” the filing states.
Allen had first been placed in a padded safe cell under 24-hour lockdown, then moved to suicide precautions.
Prior to Sunday afternoon’s developments, Allen’s attorneys had argued that the restriction violated his rights.
“Such restrictions deprive Mr. Allen from accessing resources like a jail tablet, which would permit him to communicate with loved ones outside of the jail,” the defense motion states. “Similarly, because Mr. Allen is not permitted to retain personal items while in the cell, it is counsel’s understanding that he cannot review documents that counsel leave with him, thus hindering his ability to assist in his own defense.”
The defense argued in the motion that being kept on the suicide precaution “is unnecessary” and violates Allen’s due process rights “by depriving him of dignity” by forcing him to be escorted to the shower, strip searched when leaving or entering his cell, and required to wear a padded vest while in the cell.
Even then, he still couldn’t make phone calls, receive visits from anyone except his legal team, use a jail tablet, or spend time outside his cell except for legal visits or escorted showers.
Kramer argued that Allen had shown no suicidal behavior and that a jail nurse had already recommended ending the precautions. The defense also said the restrictions interfered with Allen’s ability to help prepare his defense. Once the emergency motion landed, the jail removed him from suicide precautions.
Here’s where the milk starts to sour.
Allen is accused of arriving at a major political event with several weapons and firing at a Secret Service agent while trying to reach the president. Yet within days, the focus shifted to his phone access, tablet access, shower escorts, and ability to communicate with loved ones.
Reading all of this makes my knees hurt.
Due process matters, of course. The Constitution doesn’t vanish because the accused man is loathsome. Still, Americans can see how quickly the system found time to consider Allen’s comfort after a Secret Service agent took buckshot to the chest.
A source familiar with the investigation told CBS News that six shots were fired: One by Allen, and five by a Secret Service officer who was struck in his bulletproof vest. The officer was not seriously hurt; two sources familiar with the investigation said the shot likely struck a cellphone tucked inside the agent’s pocket. Federal officials have disputed reports that the shot that struck the agent was friendly fire. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that investigators had determined that the bullet was “definitively” shot by Allen.
I want to use an MSM trick I learned to share something I made up. Allen was upset because there were no chocolates set on his pillow, says an anonymous source who doesn’t have the authority to make public statements.
This whole scenario raises a sharper question: why does the accused assassin’s custody status seem to move faster than public answers about how he got so close in the first place?
None of that erases the criminal case against him. Prosecutors still point to video evidence, ballistic evidence, witness accounts, and the weapons Allen allegedly brought to the hotel. The suicide-watch fight doesn’t decide guilt or innocence. It does, however, show how quickly attention can drift from the officer who got shot to the accused man’s jailhouse convenience.
The man accused of trying to murder President Trump now gets a little more breathing room while the rest of the country waits to see whether federal justice still knows how to keep its priorities straight.
The assassination attempt against President Trump should remind every serious American how close political violence can come to the center of national life. PJ Media VIP keeps digging into the stories legacy outlets would rather soften, bury, or dress up in legal fog. Subscribe today and get 60% off with promo code FIGHT.
