Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, is due to appear in court Monday to be formally charged with firearms and assault offenses.
Gunshots were fired inside the Washington Hilton shortly after 8:30 p.m. Saturday night with the black tie press gala underway, prompting Secret Service agents to rush President Donald Trump and other cabinet officials to safety while guests took cover under tables.
The suspect shot and injured one law enforcement officer, before being detained near the hotel screening area, officials said in the aftermath.
Trump has since given an interview to CBS News’s 60 Minutes in which he reacted angrily to journalist Norah O’Donnell quoting segments of an anti-Trump manifesto allegedly written by Allen, in which he accused the president of being a pedophile and rapist.
Trump called O’Donnell “a horrible person” and “disgraceful” for reading aloud the accusations.
“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody… I’m not a pedophile,” the president continued. “You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
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Recap: Suspect due in court after storming White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s U.S. politics liveblog.
If you’re just joining us, here’s a reminder of our top story:
- A suspected gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, with shots fired before he was apprehended by the Secret Service.
- President Donald Trump was in attendance with his wife Melania and several cabinet officials, all of whom were swiftly removed from the venue by security for their own protection and were unharmed.
- Trump, who is believed to have been the would-be assassin’s target, had intended to address the nation’s top political journalists at the black tie gala, which will now be restaged.
- A planned visit by King Charles is going ahead as planned Monday with minor revisions made to the monarch’s schedule.
- A Secret Service agent was shot during the melee with the suspect but was protected from serious injury by their bulletproof vest. They have since been discharged from hospital.
- The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old computer programmer and tutor from Torrance, California, had multiple weapons about his person when he was stopped and an anti-Trump manifesto has since been recovered by investigators.
- He will be arraigned in federal court Monday on firearms and assault charges but has so far reportedly refused to cooperate with law enforcement.
Trump calls journalist ‘horrible person’ for confronting him with suspect’s alleged manifesto
The president angrily took issue with CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell during his 60 Minutes interview last night after she presented him with accusations made in the political tract investigators said was written by Cole Tomas Allen.
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” O’Donnell read aloud, quoting Allen, causing Trump to bristle.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people,” the president answered. “Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody… I’m not a pedophile.”
He continued, alluding to accusations associated with long-running the Jeffrey Epstein scandal: “You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace.”
The president has long denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has never been formally accused of a crime relating to the late pedophile.
This is what else Trump had to say in his CBS interview:
Why Trump, MAGA and Fetterman say Correspondents’ Dinner shooting seals deal for $400M White House ballroom
The president of the United States, his conservative allies, and even a Senate Democrat have pressed the case for his $400 million East Wing ballroom construction in the hours after a shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner left nearly the entire cabinet and D.C. press corps ducking for cover minutes into the event.
For months, the construction of Trump’s desired White House ballroom has made headlines and even seemed to consume the president’s attention during unrelated events, where Trump will often go on diatribes about the construction process or building plans. A federal judge halted the project earlier this month, while allowing construction of a secure bunker on the White House complex to continue.
Trump had the residence’s iconic East Wing demolished without warning to make room for the structure.
But Saturday evening’s chaos added a new twinge of urgency to the president’s statements and elicited a wave of new calls for the event space’s construction on the White House’s grounds from supporters of the president, many of whom had previously ignored or shied away from defending what Democrats call a grift-filled vanity project.
John Bowden reports.
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Suspect Cole Tomas Allen due in court today
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C, has said the suspect will be charged on two counts: use of a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
Pirro said that the defendant would be arraigned Monday in federal court at 1 p.m. local time.
He is currently being held in a police jail cell around half-a-mile from the Washington Hilton.
If convicted of both counts, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Here’s a full report on everything we know about Allen from Mike Bedigan and Paul Farrell.
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Gunfire, chaos, and a defiant Trump: How the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting unfolded
Here’s Maira Butt with a minute-by-minute timeline detailing precisely how Saturday night’s shocking events played out.
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Turkey's Erdogan offers support to Trump in call after gala dinner shooting
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his support for US president Donald Trump in a phone call following a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the Turkish presidency said late on Sunday.
"Erdogan said he saw the incident as a heinous act against democracy and press freedom," the presidency said in a statement on X.
Earlier, Erdogan had condemned the incident in a separate statement on X, saying he was happy that Trump and first lady Melania Trump were unharmed.
Trump lashes out at CBS News for quoting from suspect’s manifesto
US president Donald Trump lashed out at CBS News yesterday, calling it “disgraceful” for quoting from the suspect's manifesto on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, is alleged to have sent an anti-Trump manifesto to his family members moments before the shooting, calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin”.
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” the letter read.
Trump took issue with the CBS News interviewer for bringing up the manifesto, before declaring: “I’m not a pedophile” and “I’m not a rapist”.