Prosecutors detail timeline and suspect’s extensive arsenal in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting
Images included from a court filing in the case against Cole Tomas Allen include a selfie prosecutors say he took before the attack. The numbers and circles were added to the image by prosecutors.
(CNN) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday offered the most robust look yet at the government’s case against the suspected gunman who allegedly charged past security at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner where President Donald Trump and top Cabinet officials gathered last weekend, including evidence they say shows he fired toward a Secret Service officer.
In a court filing laying out prosecutors’ argument for keeping Cole Tomas Allen in custody as he awaits trial, the Department of Justice provided new details on the timeline of the shooting, along with a thorough account of the weaponry he had amassed. The US Attorney’s Office for DC provided further ballistic and crime scene analysis in a letter to the defense team later Wednesday.
Prosecutors argued there was “no combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the community’s safety” if the suspect were to be released, pointing to his extensive preparations and the possibility — avoided by “good fortune” — that he could have killed people and inflicted serious damage.
They called his plot one of “extreme political violence.”
“The defendant’s choice of targets demonstrates the deeply dangerous nature of his conduct,” the prosecutors wrote. “Attempted murder is always a serious crime, but when the intended victim is the President of the United States, as well as other high-ranking members of the U.S. government, the potential consequences are far reaching.”
Allen’s lawyers on Wednesday challenged the scope of prosecutors’ narrative and questioned whether they had direct evidence of their claims, particularly the allegation that he fired his shotgun in the direction of a Secret Service officer on Saturday evening.
“The government’s evidence of the charged offense – the attempted assassination of the president – is thus built entirely upon speculation,” they wrote in a filing arguing for his release ahead of trial.
Allen’s attorneys also complained in a court filing to the judge overseeing the case that they’re having difficulty meeting with him as the warden for the Washington, DC, jail is keeping it locked down.
So far, Allen has spoken to the lawyers only over a jailhouse phone, from a locked cell, where he is physically restrained in multiple ways, his lawyers said.
“As the Court is aware, the D.C. Jail has housed many high-profile defendants. But none — to counsel’s knowledge — have been denied this essential right in the manner counsel experienced on April 28,” they wrote. “The prejudice to his defense grows with every passing hour.”
Public defenders representing him at the initial appearance earlier this week noted in court he had no prior criminal record.
The judge later granted the lawyers’ request, allowing Allen “unrestricted legal visits” for the rest of his case.
A month of preparation
Allen, a 31-year-old from California, is charged with attempting to assassinate the president and related counts in connection with the shooting. He has not entered a plea in the case yet, and his attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors alleged that he came to Washington, DC, after a lengthy cross-country train journey, eventually approaching the Washington Hilton ballroom on Saturday night with what they described as a “veritable armament.” That included a 12-gauge pump action shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, multiple knives and daggers and a significant amount of ammunition for reloading, according to the new filing.
By federal prosecutors’ account, Allen’s planning began weeks before the dinner. On April 6, a little over a month after Trump announced he was attending, Allen searched for information on the event, then booked himself a two-night stay at the Washington Hilton during the weekend it was to take place, they say.
Federal prosecutors alleged he researched the dinner, the schedule, the host and expected attendees.
Four days before the attack, on April 21, Allen departed Los Angeles on an Amtrak passenger train which took him to Chicago, according to the court filing. On April 23, the filing says, he boarded a second train to Washington, DC.
During his journey from Chicago to the nation’s capital, Allen passed time reading an article in a DC newspaper titled “Social Scene: Your Guide to the 2026 White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend,” according to the court filing. He arrived at Union Station on April 24, taking the metro to Dupont Circle and checking into the Hilton — which was hosting the dinner — at approximately 3:15 p.m., the filing says.
The day of the dinner
On the day of the dinner, according to the filing, Allen left his room several times and searched for the president’s schedule on his phone.
At approximately 8:03 p.m., Allen took a photo of himself reflected in his hotel room mirror, showing weapons strapped to his body, the filing says.
After checking the president’s schedule one last time, Allen left his hotel room at approximately 8:15 p.m., the filing says. About 12 minutes later, Allen was watching live videos on media websites showing the president arriving at the hotel. Federal prosecutors said he pre-scheduled an email outlining his intentions to land in the inboxes of family, friends and a former employer at 8:30 p.m.
The attack
Minutes after watching the president arrive at the hotel on his phone, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Allen approached the security checkpoint a floor above the ballroom where the president, Cabinet officials and members of the media were seated, according to the court filing. Before he reached the checkpoint, he shed his long black coat, revealing the shotgun he was carrying, it says. He then sprinted through the checkpoint to the ballroom — a scramble that was caught on video released by Trump the night of the shooting.
As Allen sprinted to the stairs, he raised the shotgun and a Secret Service officer reported that he observed the man “fire the shotgun in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom,” according to the court filing. The filing says the same officer “and others at the checkpoint heard the gunshot.”
The officer fired five times at Allen with none of the bullets hitting him, according to the filing. Allen fell to the ground and was soon arrested, the filing says.
In response to a request from Allen’s attorneys for more information about the gunfire, the US Attorney’s Office for DC on Wednesday evening provided further detail about the evidence gathered so far while noting that the government’s analysis remains ongoing.
“The government’s preliminary ballistics and video analyses show that your client fired his shotgun in the direction” of the Secret Service officer,” prosecutors said in a letter to the defense team.
Investigators recovered a spent cartridge case in the chamber of the shotgun, prosecutors said, and “at least one fragment was recovered from the crime scene that was physically consistent with a single buckshot pellet.” The location of the fragment was consistent with Allen firing the shotgun in the direction of the Secret Service officer, they added.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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