State Piles On Terror Charge, Then Picks Its Own Victim as Prosecutor

A federal grand jury has stacked an attempted terrorism charge on top of the case against Cole Tomas Allen, the man arrested after he opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on April 25, according to court filings that surfaced Thursday. Allen now faces five counts. The top one: attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.

The new count, committing an act of terrorism while armed, comes from the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia. Prosecutors claim Allen tried to kill Trump with the intent of influencing executive branch policy and intimidating a "significant portion of the civilian population." If he's convicted, federal prosecutors could potentially seek a federal terrorism sentencing enhancement. More years, more cage.

Who Has the Power

Here's the part the courts would rather you skim. There's no federal domestic terrorism statute that broadly outlaws acts of terrorism. So the apparatus reached for a local D.C. terrorism law, the same one used against Floyd Fee Corkins, the gunman convicted of attacking the Family Research Council in 2012. When the law doesn't fit, the state finds a statute that does.

And who's running the prosecution? Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C. She was in attendance at the dinner. She's an alleged victim of the very crime Allen is accused of committing. Allen moved to disqualify her. He lost. The president appoints the head of that office, which is currently led by a former judge and Fox News host. The accused asked whether the alleged victim should also be the prosecutor. The court said yes.

What They're Calling "Order"

The charging documents say Allen charged through a Secret Service security checkpoint "armed with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun, a .38caliber pistol, multiple knives and daggers, and a significant amount of ammunition." Prosecutors allege he ran past security, shot a Secret Service agent and tried to enter the ballroom at the Washington Hilton. Trump and Vice President JD Vance were rushed off the stage. Federal authorities allege Allen scheduled emails to his family, friends and former employer explaining his actions.

A California native, Allen is said to have written a manifesto before the attempt that made clear he wished to target members of the Trump administration. His family learned of his plans minutes before the incident and alerted local police, according to NBC News. Minutes. That's what the people closest to him had, and they used it to call the cops.

The Machinery Grinds On

Allen pleaded not guilty in April to attempted murder of the president, assaulting an officer of the United States and two federal gun charges. He hasn't pleaded to the new charge. A status conference is set for Dec. 4, three weeks from today, and a jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 7, 2027, before U.S. Judge Trevor N. McFadden, about ten months from now.

Allen is the latest of three gunmen charged with attempting to assassinate Trump. The first was at a 2024 rally in Butler, Pa., two years ago. The second was at a Florida golf course months later. Each case lands in the same place: a courtroom, a prosecutor appointed by the man at the center of it, and a sentencing menu that keeps growing. Nobody in that room is asking what keeps producing people willing to go this far. They're asking how long the cage should be.