Federal prosecutors moved Wednesday to keep the man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner jailed pending trial, releasing a mirror selfie that suspect Cole Allen took in his hotel room about 30 minutes before he charged a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and multiple blades.
The 20-page memorandum filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro asks the court to hold Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, without bond pending a Thursday detention hearing. Prosecutors call the attack "premeditated, violent, and calculated to cause death" and argue that no release conditions can assure community safety.
The filing says Allen took the photo at 8:03 p.m. April 25 inside his room at the Washington Hilton, dressed in a black shirt and red tie.
An enhanced version, prosecutors said, shows a small leather ammunition bag, a shoulder holster, a sheathed knife, and pliers and wire cutters consistent with items recovered after his arrest.
About 25 minutes after the selfie, Allen used his phone to view live coverage of Trump arriving at the hotel and to search online for "trump white house correspondents dinner."
Prescheduled emails to family, friends, and a former employer were sent at about 8:30 p.m., carrying an "Apology and Explanation" attachment.
The letter declared, "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes," and listed administration officials as primary targets. Allen signed it "Cole 'coldForce' 'Friendly Federal Assassin' Allen."
The memo describes Allen sprinting through a magnetometer on the terrace level and firing a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun toward the staircase leading to the ballroom.
A Secret Service officer fired five rounds at Allen and missed. Allen fell, suffered a knee injury, and was arrested.
That account differs from the April 27 DOJ release, which said an officer wearing a ballistic vest was "shot once in the chest." The newer filing makes no such claim.
Prosecutors itemized the arsenal recovered from Allen: the Mossberg with one spent and eight unfired shells, six more on a Velcro carrier, and 10 in a leather bag; a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol with ten rounds; two spare nine-round magazines; two knives, four daggers, sheaths, holsters, pliers, and wire cutters.
A search of his room turned up additional knives, ammunition, a respirator, and duct tape.
Allen was arraigned Monday on charges of attempting to assassinate the president, transporting a firearm in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He did not enter a plea.
The lead count carries up to life in prison; the firearm-discharge count carries a 10-year mandatory minimum that must run consecutively to any other sentence.
The shooting marked the third known assassination attempt on Trump, after the July 2024 rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the September 2024 incident at his West Palm Beach golf course.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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