Torrance charged with attempted assassination of Trump; details of alleged ‘manifesto’ records

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Torrance resident Cole Tomas Allen with trying to kill President Trump after he rushed through security at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in Washington on Saturday.

The domestic terrorism charge, announced during a brief trial in federal court in Washington and detailed in a subsequent indictment, carries a possible life sentence for the Caltech graduate student and high school teacher.

Prosecutors also charged Allen with transporting firearms across state borders while traveling by train from California to Washington and with firing a gun during the incident at the Washington Hilton, where officials said an agent wearing his vest was shot.

In the document, prosecutors also described an email Allen allegedly sent to family members just as he was preparing to break the cycle of the event, in which he allegedly wrote that senior officials of the Trump administration were his target but that he was willing to “pass” others at the event to reach them.

Instead, Allen was dropped off by agents shortly after passing them and before walking down the stairs and into the ballroom where Trump and other senior administration officials were sitting. No officials were injured in the incident, which the White House described as the latest in a series of assassination attempts against 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 reached at the Allen family home in Torrance – which was searched by the FBI over the weekend – declined to comment.

At the morning hearing, Asst. US Atty. Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen “walked many interstate highways with a gun” and “tried to kill the president with a 12-gauge shotgun.”

Senior management officials – including Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel — echoed those claims in a subsequent press conference. Blanche described Allen as a serious threat, while also downplaying his closeness to the president and the potential for him to harm administration officials.

“The law enforcement did not fail. They did what they were trained to do,” said Blanche. He said Allen fell or was knocked to the ground when he was shot by law enforcement.

Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen was charged with trying to kill the president because of his documents – which Trump and other administrations have called a “manifesto.”

Blanche said officials seized devices from Allen’s hotel room and home in Torrance, which could add more context to his motivation, but officials were not ready to discuss what might have been found on those devices. Pirro said more charges are pending.

Blanche emphasized that the investigation into this incident is in the first stage. It is not yet clear, for example, who shot the Secret Service.

“We are still looking at that,” said Blanche.

In the charging document, prosecutors included the text of the manifesto — an emailed document they say Allen planned to automatically send to family members when he entered a secure hotel room, in which he announced that Trump administration officials were his targets.

In the emailed document, labeled by the author as an “Apology and Explanation,” Allen allegedly wrote that Trump administration officials “will be ranked from highest to lowest” based on his direction.

“I would still go through everyone here to get to the target if it was absolutely necessary (on the basis that many people *choose* to attend the speech of a child abuser, rapist, and traitor, and therefore are complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote, according to the charging document.

Allen is said to have written that Secret Service agents “were victims only when necessary, and could act lethally if possible”; that the police, hotel staff and hotel guests were not his targets; and that he will be using buckshot “to reduce casualties,” according to the document.

“I don’t expect a pardon, but if I could have seen another way to approach this, I would have taken it,” he wrote, according to the document. Allen, a teacher in Torrance, also apologized to his family, colleagues and students, but said he felt he had to act as an American citizen represented by the Trump administration.

“What my representatives are doing affects me. And I am no longer willing to allow a person who abuses children, a rapist, or a traitor to ignore my crimes,” he wrote.

The charging document also described the first moments when Allen entered the secure area and a Secret Service agent was allegedly shot through his ballistic vest.

Prosecutors wrote that federal agents “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen ran through the metal detector with a long gun, that a Secret Service officer identified by the initials “VG” was “shot once in the chest” by a ballistic vest, and that he “pulled his service weapon and fired several shots at ALLEN, who fell to the ground but was unhurt.”

Allen was found with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol, the document alleged.

Prosecutors asked for Allen to be jailed. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, who presided over the hearing, scheduled a second hearing Thursday morning to determine whether Allen will be remanded in custody.

Federal public defenders assigned to Allen after he submitted a financial affidavit to the court requesting representation noted that Allen has no prior criminal record, which is a factor in determining a criminal suspect’s treatment before trial.

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

Allen, who was wearing a blue jumpsuit, did not appear injured and said little during the hearing, other than to explain himself and acknowledge that he understood the proceedings.

Allen is said to have expressed his disdain for and intention to assassinate Trump administration officials in a manifesto written before the writers’ dinner. According to the New York Post, Allen in that document described himself as a “Friendly Organization Killer” who would not hesitate to shoot any of the more than 2,600 people present to reach the officers.

Those in attendance included hundreds of journalists and several Trump administration officials – including Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.

Allen had booked a room at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place.

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

Trump, who has been dogged by questions about his relationship with deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein throughout his second term, was surprised when the shooter referred to a “child abuser” and “rapist” in the manifesto.

“I’m not a rapist. I haven’t raped anyone,” said Trump in an interview with CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell. “I’m not a person who likes children.”

He also criticized O’Donnell for quoting that part of the manifesto, saying it was wrong to do so.

During a previous press conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said the White House was considering whether to review the Secret Service’s policy on major events attended by the president, despite her satisfaction with the agency’s performance at Saturday’s event.

Leavitt said the Secret Service was able to subdue the suspect and get the president, first lady and vice president out of the room within minutes.

Still, with major celebrations planned for the nation’s 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the Olympics, discussions about a possible renewal of Secret Service programs will begin this week, led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Leavitt said. For security reasons, the results of those discussions will likely be kept confidential, he added.

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

Leavitt also called on Congress to defund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service, after political infighting led to a 73-day lapse in that funding.

Leavitt also suggested that anti-Trump propaganda from the president’s opponents played a role in his targeting and needed to be toned down.

“It encourages these crazy people across the country to not only look at the president, but those who work for him and those who support him,” Leavitt said.

“No one has faced more bullets and violence in recent years than President Trump,” he added. “This political violence stems from the demonization of him and his followers by pundits — yes, by elected members of the Democratic Party, and even by some in the media.”

Blanche echoed that argument – pointing to the media, many of whom have been playing Trump.

“If you have journalists, if you have media outlets that are very critical and call the president horrible names for no reason and without proof, without proof, it should not be surprising that this kind of talk happens,” he said.