BREAKING: Accused WHCD gunman Cole Allen to remain in custody ahead of trial

Cole Tomas Allen, the man charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, will remain in custody.

At the Thursday morning hearing, Allen’s public defenders said that he was "conceding detention at this time," per NBC News. His defense team had been pushing for his release.

In a court filing supporting his release, the public defenders argued, "Mr. Allen’s history and characteristics counsel in favor of release in this case," noting that he has no past criminal history and was "gainfully employed as a tutor" in California.

In a DOJ court filing in support of pretrial detention, prosecutors said that "The defendant’s actions were premeditated, violent, and calculated to cause death. Considering the relevant statutory factors, there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of other people or the community if the defendant were released from custody. The Court should detain the defendant pending trial."

In writings, Allen said that he was targeting Trump administration officials, "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest." Saturday’s event was the first time in both of his presidencies that Trump attended the dinner. In a letter prosecutors say was written after he arrived at the hotel, Allen wrote about the security situation at the venue. He wrote that he "walk[ed] in with multiple weapons and not a single person there [at the hotel] considers the possibility that I could be a threat."

The DOJ argued in support of pretrial detention, "Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history. The defendant traveled across the country with the explicit aim to kill the President of the United States. The defendant, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, two knives, four daggers, and enough ammunition to take dozens of lives, was apprehended by USSS officers mere feet away from the ballroom where his primary target was located, along with other members of the Cabinet."

"This was a planned attack of unfathomable malice that risked the lives of hundreds of people whose only transgression was attending an annual event celebrating the media and featuring the President of the United States. It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence."

 

DOJ Pretrial Detention Support Filing Cole Allen by Hannah Nightingale