WASHINGTON — The suspected White House Correspondents Dinner shooter Cole Allen appeared in court Monday where prosecutors announced they were charging him with trying to assassinate president trump.
The 31-year-old accused madman spoke loudly and confidently answering a judge’s questions in federal court in Washington DC as he was hit with the charges of attempted assassination of a president, transportation of a firearm across state lines to commit a felony and discharging a gun.
Allen — who walked into the courtroom with a somber look and wearing a blue jail jumpsuit — answered the judge when asked his name, loudly proclaiming: “Cole Tomas Allen.”
He also said his age and told the judge he had a “master’s degree.”
Allen, a teacher and graduate of CalTech, is accused of trying to attack the political soirée where President Trump and most of the top members of his administration were mingling with journalists Saturday night.
Firing a shotgun, the Torrance, Calif., native tried to burst through a security checkpoint just outside of the Washington Hilton ballroom roughly 20 minutes after President Trump and first lady Melania had arrived, officials alleged
One Secret Service agent was shot before the agents subdued and arrested Alle.
The wounded officer was saved by his bulletproof vest.
Trump, Melania and other top officials had to be evacuated and the dinner, meant to toast the Washington press corps, was called off and set to be rescheduled for roughly a month later.
Allen allegedly sent an unhinged anti-President Trump manifesto to his family 10 minutes before he unleashed his fury — the letter so alarming that it prompted his brother to call the New London, Conn., police.
Referring to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin,” Allen wrote he was targeting top officials in the Republican administration — though he specified he didn’t want to kill FBI Director Kash Patel or other members of law enforcement.
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen wrote, in an apparent reference to Trump.
In addition to the political rant, Allen also bashed the “insane” lack of security at the hotel — where he was able to waltz with weapons that went undetected.
“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance. I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat,” he wrote.
Allen is allegedly part of a group called “The Wide Awakes” — a revival of a youth organization from the Civil War-era that adopted the stance of the Republican Party of the time, including opposing slavery.
Allen — who graduated from Caltech with a degree in engineering and a master’s in computer science — worked for tutoring and test prep company C2 Education and had been named “Teacher of the Month,” in December 2024.
Allen will remain behind bars until a bail hearing Thursday.
