WASHINGTON — Accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter Cole Allen pleaded not guilty at a Monday hearing in DC federal court to charges including attempting to assassinate President Trump.
Allen, 31, is also charged with assault on law enforcement, transporting a firearm across state lines to commit a felony, and discharging a weapon during a crime of violence.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Allen’s attorneys have argued that the attack’s occurrence during the annual black-tie gala — which hosted several Trump cabinet officials in addition to the president—— should force the recusal of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro from prosecuting their client.
The former Torrance, Calif., teacher had been kept on suicide watch following the April 25 shooting at the Washington Hilton, during which Allen allegedly shot a Secret Service agent in his bulletproof vest before being subdued.
Allen entered the courtroom wearing an orange jumpsuit with his arms and legs shackled before approaching the bench to enter his plea before US District Judge Trevor McFadden.
The judge set a status conference in the case for June 29. Before then, prosecutors and Allen’s defense team will argue over whether Pirro or Blanche should have to recuse themselves.
Defense attorney Eugene Ohm told McFadden that he intended to ask not just for Pirro but her “entire office” to be removed from the case, claiming there was a “structural appearance of impropriety” given her “supervisory” role in the investigation.
Here’s the latest on the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner:
“It’s wholly inappropriate,” Ohm claimed, for Pirro or Blanche to “be making the primary prosecutorial decisions in the case.”
McFadden later told Assistant DC US Attorney Charles Jones that it “sounds like you’d be out too,” should the defense succeed in its motion.
The judge pushed back on Ohm, asking whether he believed prosecutors intended to call either Blanche or Pirro as witnesses.
In response, Allen’s lawyer only noted Pirro’s longstanding “close” relationship with Trump.
Ohm also suggested that Pirro or other cabinet officials who attended the dinner could also be listed as potential targets in a superseding indictment of Allen.
