The man accused of firing a Mossberg shotgun roughly 100 feet from President Trump at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner was arraigned Monday and charged with three counts related to his outburst.
“The first count is attempted assassination of the President of the United States. This count is punishable by up to life in prison,” said Acting Attorney Todd Blanche at a press conference soon after the arraignment of Cole Tomas Allen.
“The second count is interstate transportation of a firearm to commit a felony,” Blanche said.
“The third count is discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, which is punishable by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum of life, and the 10 years is consecutive to any other sentence imposed,” he noted.
Allen was brought into Prettyman Federal Courthouse wearing a blue inmate top and bottom. He rose to be sworn in, and then Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh allowed him to be seated for the rest of the proceedings.
Before it was done, federal prosecutor Jocelyn Ballentine told the magistrate that Allen had committed acts of terrorism, but he was noticeably not charged with terrorism. This means that he does not now face a death sentence, which may be more a policy choice by Blanche.
The California man, who described himself as the friendly federal assassin, was not asked to enter a plea for the charges because he was just assigned his court-appointed public defender, Tezira Abe.
Sharbaugh said he was inclined to grant Ballentine’s request for pretrial detention, but Abe countered that because Allen has no prior record, he should be granted a detention hearing to determine if he can be released before the trial. The judge consented, and that hearing was scheduled.
As the world anticipates the Allen trial, way too many people are wondering how he got so close—in this way, the Secret Service is also on trial.
No one is criticizing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose portfolio of agencies includes the Secret Service, because he just took over March 24, but he will be judged by how he applies the lessons learned.
Blanche made the point that law enforcement, including Secret Service— including the agent who fired at Allen five times at close range, going 0-for-5—secured the threat and did their jobs.
“Law enforcement did not fail,” the acting attorney general said. “They did exactly what they were trained to do. The men and women who protected us that night were trained professionals and had an enduring commitment to the rule of law.”
That said, it is important to consider what Blanche did not say.
Whenever you are doing risk assessment, you have to consider the cost of failure. In the case of the assassination of Trump, the cost could be a full-blown civil war, or even an international conflict, with our enemies taking advantage of the turmoil.
Blanche portrayed the hotel where the shooting took place as inherently dangerous in his April 26 letter to the attorneys for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is suing to stop the president’s new White House ballroom.
The shooting proved the ballroom on the White House grounds was the ideal solution to the security problem.
The acting attorney general said the Washington Hilton, where President Ronald W. Reagan was shot in 1981, was part of the problem.
“As history proves, that venue is demonstrably unsafe for the President of the United States, because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service,” he said.
Hold on, General Blanche. Did this point ever come up before the president agreed to attend the dinner there?