A man charged in an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is asking a judge to keep top Justice Department officials away from any direct prosecutorial decisions, arguing their attendance at the event creates a conflict because they were present when gunshots were fired.
In a court filing late Thursday, defense attorneys for Cole Tomas Allen said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro attended the April 25 event at the Washington Hilton and “both heard gunshots,” which they argued forced the officials to duck and were followed by their evacuation. The attorneys said Allen’s case will proceed toward trial and that the public will question how the justice system can permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them.
Defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe argued that Blanche and Pirro could be considered victims or witnesses whose involvement would make it inappropriate for them to make prosecutorial decisions. They wrote that “As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder — how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” and suggested that a special prosecutor might be warranted.
Ohm and Abe urged U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro and Blanche from direct participation in the investigation and prosecution. The motion also sought exclusion of Pirro, Blanche and possibly other Justice Department officials from direct involvement, according to the filing described by the Associated Press.
Pirro, whose office would be among the parts of the department facing the requested recusal, said her office will respond to the defense arguments in its own court filing. In a statement, she said, “We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law.”
Allen is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, and the indictment was handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington. The Associated Press reported that the charges include attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump and that Blanche previously served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department last year.
Allen is also charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts, according to the Associated Press report. The Secret Service officer who was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest fired five times but did not hit anybody, AP said, and Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was injured but not shot.
As previously reported, the case stems from the April 25 attack after a man allegedly ran through a security checkpoint at the dinner and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer; MSI previously reported that the suspect faced additional charges as prosecutors pursued the case through indictment.