Judge weighs Cole Tomas Allen detention after Thursday hearing
A judge hearing on Thursday ended with Cole Tomas Allen’s lawyers conceding that he should stay detained for now. The decision keeps Allen in custody as the case tied to the White House correspondents' dinner attack moves forward.
The hearing centered on a letter prosecutors say Allen wrote and on whether his references to a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor” were aimed at President Donald Trump. Allen allegedly wrote, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
Allen’s letter and the target issue
Lawyers for Allen had argued in a motion seeking pretrial release that his intent to assassinate Trump at the White House correspondents’ dinner last weekend was “far from clear.” Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the defense wrote that the letter “makes no mention of the president by name,” while the Justice Department said the suspect was talking about Trump when he used the phrase.
Allen allegedly wrote that he “would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary” and that most people who chose to attend a speech by a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor” were complicit. Allen’s alleged “expected rules of engagement” also included “Administration officials.”
Justice Department and Trump response
Before the hearing, Justice Department lawyers argued that Allen viewed anyone attending the dinner as a legitimate target because they “chose” to attend the president’s speech. The filing did not quote Allen’s derogatory description, but it appears to have referred to the same line about attendees who chose to hear a speech by a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor.”
Trump later responded to a reporter’s question about the letter by saying, “I’m not a rapist” and “I’m not a pedophile.” The president has denied wrongdoing related to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while facing child sex trafficking charges, and he is appealing civil awards in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump, Epstein, and Carroll
One civil jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape, and a judge wrote that the jury’s finding that Carroll failed to prove she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean she failed to prove that Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word. That backdrop has now become part of the dispute over whether Allen’s alleged letter was directed at Trump or some other target.
Allen’s letter is not the only evidence prosecutors are using to argue for detention, but Thursday’s concession by the defense meant the immediate custody question was settled for now. The next step in the case is the broader prosecution of Allen over the correspondents’ dinner attack, with the detention ruling leaving him inside the D.C. jail complex while that case continues.
