BREAKING: Alleged Shooter Charged After Storming White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The suspected shooter at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces charges of transporting a firearm across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He appeared in federal court in Washington for his arraignment on Monday.

A federal judge advised Allen of his legal rights, and prosecutors asked for his detention while the case moves forward.

Camera footage caught Allen running through the security perimeter and charging toward the Washington Hilton ballroom where the dinner was being held. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, administration officials, and members of the White House press corps were all in attendance.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia said Allen would be charged with assault on a federal officer after he shot a Secret Service agent.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said other charges, including attempted assassination, were possible.

Allen left a manifesto with family members referring to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and expressing plans to target senior Trump administration officials who were present in the hotel ballroom.

This marked the third attempt on Trump’s life. He was shot in the ear in Pennsylvania at a campaign stop in 2024, and a would-be shooter was stopped near Trump’s Florida home later that year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday compared the rhetoric in Allen’s manifesto to criticism of Trump by his political opponents.

“Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many,” Leavitt said during the White House briefing. “The entire Democrat Party has made its pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist.”

Allen traveled by train from California to Washington and booked a room at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the dinner took place, officials said.

Trump was set to deliver remarks later in the evening and was rushed off the stage by security personnel after shots were fired.

Reuters contributed to this story.