A federal grand jury has added a terrorism charge to the case against Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April in an attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump. The five-count superseding indictment was unsealed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced it the same day.
The new count charges Allen with an act of terrorism while armed, under the D.C. criminal code, for the attempted first-degree murder of the President of the United States. The indictment says the attack was carried out with intent to influence government policy and intimidate civilians. The maximum penalty Allen now faces is life imprisonment. Allen pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charge on Friday, and he had already pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him earlier. An indictment is an accusation, and Allen is presumed innocent unless the government proves its case at trial.
There is no federal statute that specifically covers domestic terrorism, so prosecutors brought the terrorism count under Washington's local law. Pirro's office has the unusual authority to prosecute both federal crimes and local offenses involving adult defendants in the capital, which is what made the added count possible.
On the night of April 25, 2026, President Trump was seated inside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton for the annual dinner. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., prosecutors say, Allen sprinted through one of the magnetometers at a Secret Service security screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the hotel and ran toward the stairs leading down to the ballroom, firing a Mossberg Maverick 88 12-gauge pump-action shotgun as he went. The shot hit a Secret Service officer once in the chest. The officer drew his service weapon and fired five times. Allen fell to the ground, was restrained by law enforcement and arrested at the scene, suffering a minor injury to his knee but not shot. The gunfire could be heard inside the ballroom, where guests scrambled under tables, and the President and First Lady Melania Trump were taken to safety. No one suffered major injuries, and the wounded officer was treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.
When he was arrested, Allen was carrying far more than the shotgun, which still held one spent cartridge. He also had a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38 caliber pistol, dozens of rounds of unspent 12-gauge shotgun ammunition and .38 caliber ammunition, two knives, four daggers, multiple sheaths and holsters, needle nose pliers and wire cutters.
The full charge sheet now reads: attempting to assassinate the President of the United States; assaulting an officer or employee of the United States with a deadly weapon; transporting a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with the intent to commit a felony; discharging a firearm during a crime of violence; and the new count of act of terrorism while armed. The case was investigated by the FBI's Washington Field Office and is being prosecuted by the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
For ordinary Americans, the meaning of the new count is plain. An attack on the President is treated as an attack on the country's government itself, and the law in the capital answers it with the heaviest penalty it has. The screening checkpoint did its job that night — the gunman was stopped before he reached the ballroom — and the case now moves toward a public trial, where the evidence will be tested in open court.
Allen is due back in court on December 4 for a status conference. His jury trial is scheduled to begin on September 7, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden. If he is convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
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