Torrance man charged with attempt to assassinate Trump; records detail alleged ‘manifesto’

WASHINGTON— Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Torrance resident Cole Tomas Allen with attempting to assassinate President Trump after passing security at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. Dinner in Washington on Saturday.

The domestic terrorism charge, announced during a brief hearing in federal court in Washington and later detailed in a charging document, carries a potential sentence of life in prison for the Caltech graduate and high school teacher.

Prosecutors also charged Allen with carrying a firearm across state lines while traveling by train from California to Washington and discharging a firearm during the incident at the Washington Hilton, where authorities said a federal agent was shot through his ballistic vest.

inside charging documentprosecutors also detailed an email Allen allegedly sent to family members just as he was preparing to violate the activity limit; in which he allegedly wrote that he was a target of senior Trump administration officials but was willing to “outdo” others at the event to reach them.

Instead, Allen was taken down by agents shortly after he sped past them and before walking down the stairs and into the ballroom where Trump and other senior administration officials were seated. No officials were injured in what the White House described as the latest in a series of assassination attempts on Trump.

Federal public defenders assigned to represent Allen did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Allen could not be reached for comment. A person contacted earlier at the Allen family’s home in Torrance and wanted by the FBI over the weekend declined to comment.

In the morning hearing, Asst. US Atty. Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen “crossed multiple state lines with a firearm” and “attempted to assassinate the president with a 12-gauge shotgun.”

Senior management officials – including the Deputy Solicitor. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel reiterated these claims at a later press conference. While Blanche described Allen as a serious threat, she also downplayed his closeness to the president and the possibility that he could harm administration officials.

“Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they were trained to do,” Blanche said. He said Allen either fell or was pinned to the ground while under fire from law enforcement.

Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen was accused of attempting to assassinate the president because of his writings that Trump and others in the administration called a “manifesto.”

Blanche said authorities seized devices from Allen’s hotel room and his home in Torrance, which could further fuel his motivation, but authorities were not ready to discuss what might be found on those devices. Pirro said additional charges are pending.

Blanche emphasized that the investigation into the incident is still in its early stages. For example, it is still unclear who fired the gun that hit the Secret Service agent.

“We’re still looking at that,” Blanche said.

In the charging document, prosecutors included in an emailed document the text of the manifesto that Allen planned to automatically send to family members when he entered the hotel’s secure area, declaring himself a target of Trump administration officials.

In the emailed document, which the author calls an “Apology and Explanation,” Allen allegedly wrote that Trump administration officials would be “prioritized from the highest rank to the lowest” based on how they targeted them.

“If it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *choose* to attend the conversation of a pedophile, rapist and traitor and are therefore complicit) I would still call most people here to achieve the goals, but I really hope it doesn’t come to this,” he wrote, according to the charging document.

Allen allegedly wrote that Secret Service agents “are targets only if necessary and should be neutralized non-lethally if possible”; that he was not the target of the police, hotel employees or hotel guests; and said he would use nonsense to “minimize losses,” according to the document.

“I don’t expect to be forgiven, but if I could see another way to get this close I would,” he wrote, according to the documents. Allen, a teacher in Torrance, also apologized to his family, colleagues and students but said he felt he had to act as a U.S. citizen represented by the Trump administration.

“The actions of my representatives reflect on me. And I will no longer allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to cover my hands with their crimes,” he allegedly wrote.

The charging document also describes the initial moments when Allen allegedly entered the secure area and was struck by a Secret Service agent’s ballistic vest.

Prosecutors wrote that federal agents “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen ran toward the metal detector with a long gun, while a Secret Service officer identified only by the initials “VG” in a ballistic vest “was shot once in the chest” and “drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at ALLEN, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not hit.”

The document alleged that Allen was in possession of a 12-gauge shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber revolver.

Prosecutors requested that Allen be kept in custody. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, who presided over the hearing, scheduled a second hearing Thursday morning to decide whether Allen should remain in custody.

Federal public defenders appointed after Allen filed a financial affidavit with the court seeking representation stated that Allen had no prior criminal record; This is a factor that determines how a criminal suspect behaves before trial.

Those lawyers — Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm — did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing.

Allen, wearing a royal blue jumpsuit, showed no visible injuries and said little at the hearing other than identifying himself and acknowledging he understood the legal proceedings.

Allen allegedly expressed disdain and intent to kill Trump administration officials in the manifesto he wrote before the reporters’ dinner. In that document, Allen described himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” who would not hesitate to shoot any of the more than 2,600 people present to reach authorities, according to the New York Post.

The event included hundreds of journalists and numerous Trump administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.

Allen had reserved a room at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held.

Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday that he was “not worried” about gunfire. “We live in a crazy world,” he said.

Trump, who grappled with questions about his relationship with deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein during his second term, was angered by the attacker’s mention of “pedophile” and “rapist” in his manifesto.

“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anyone,” Trump said in an interview with CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “I’m not a pedophile.”

He also railed against O’Donnell for quoting this part of the manifesto, saying it was inappropriate to do so.

Despite her satisfaction with the agency’s performance at Saturday’s event, the White House is considering whether to revise Secret Service protocols for large events attended by the president, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news conference earlier Monday.

The Secret Service successfully subdued the suspect and removed the president, first lady and vice president from the room within minutes, Leavitt said.

Still, with major celebrations planned around the nation’s 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the Olympics, discussions about potential updates to Secret Service plans will begin this week, led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Leavitt said. The results of these talks will likely be kept secret for security reasons, he added.

“If adjustments need to be made to protect the president, they will be made,” he said.

Leavitt also called on Congress to appropriate funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Secret Service, after a political impasse led to a historic 73-day cut in that funding.

Leavitt also suggested that the anti-Trump rhetoric of those who oppose the president played a role in his targeting and softening.

“It’s inspiring these crazy people all over the country to target not just the president, but those who work for him and those who support him,” Leavitt said.

“No one has suffered more shootings and violence in recent years than President Trump,” he added. “This political violence stems from his systematic demonization of himself and his supporters by commentators—yes, elected members of the Democratic Party and even some in the media.”

Blanche echoed this claim and directed the blame at the media, most of whom were in the ballroom with Trump.

“When you have journalists, when your media is overly critical and calling the president terrible names for no reason, without evidence, without proof, it shouldn’t surprise us that this kind of rhetoric happens,” he said.