Federal prosecutors on Thursday provided the clearest view yet of the chaotic moments an armed man breached the outer security perimeter of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, releasing a nearly six-minute video that shows Cole Tomas Allen charging through a magnetometer checkpoint with a long gun and knives as officers scrambled to respond.
The video, posted on social media by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, shows Allen walking back and forth in a hallway the day before the attack, then emerging from a doorway and sprinting toward about a dozen federal officers who were taking down magnetometers and casually standing around. Only one officer visible in the footage appears to have drawn his gun before the gunman passed; Pirro said that officer was struck in his bullet-resistant vest and returned fire five times.
Pirro said Thursday there is no evidence the officer was hit by friendly fire, addressing speculation about whose bullet hit the agent. Secret Service Director Sean Curran, in a Fox News interview, defended the agency’s security plan and said he would not change it, emphasizing that the attack was stopped at the outermost perimeter of a multi-layered security bubble, 355 feet from the podium where the president sat. “The site was set up perfectly,” Curran said.
Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was injured but not shot during the attack. He agreed Thursday to remain jailed while awaiting trial and did not enter a plea. Prosecutors said in court papers that Allen had taken a selfie in his hotel room minutes before the incident, outfitted with an ammunition bag, shoulder gun holster and sheathed knife, and had referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in a message that alluded obliquely to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.
Allen’s lawyers, who had initially argued he should be released, agreed to keep him detained for now but left open the possibility of seeking release before trial. In a court filing Wednesday, they wrote that the government’s case is “based upon inferences drawn about Mr. Allen’s intent that raise more questions than answers” and noted that Allen’s writings never mentioned Trump by name. “The government’s evidence of the charged offense — the attempted assassination of the president — is thus built entirely upon speculation,” they argued.
Allen faces charges of attempted assassination of the president and two firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence. If convicted on the assassination count alone, he could face up to life in prison. Before the attack, he worked as a part-time tutor for a test preparation company and is an amateur video game developer.