Federal prosecutors cited a hotel-room selfie, weapons photos and phone records as they urged a judge to keep Cole Tomas Allen jailed before trial.
Federal prosecutors say a California man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner took a hotel-room selfie while wearing weapons-related gear about a half hour before the alleged attack.
The image, included in a new detention filing Wednesday, is part of prosecutors’ effort to keep 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen jailed without bond. A detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Allen is accused of trying to force his way through a security checkpoint Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, where Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other senior administration officials were attending the annual dinner. He has been held since Secret Service officers tackled him before he could reach a staircase leading to the ballroom, prosecutors said.
The filing says the selfie appears to show Allen wearing a small leather bag consistent with an ammunition-filled bag later recovered from him, along with a shoulder holster, a sheathed knife, and pliers and wire cutters that prosecutors said resembled items later found on him. Prosecutors also submitted photos of guns and knives they say Allen was carrying.
Allen is charged with trying to assassinate Trump, transportation of a firearm or ammunition in interstate commerce, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
In the detention memo, prosecutors described the alleged plot as planned and politically motivated. “There is no condition or combination of conditions that would reasonably assure the community’s safety if the defendant were released pending trial,” prosecutors from the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote.
The memo says Allen searched online for the 2026 White House Correspondents’ dinner on April 6 and, less than two hours later, received a confirmation email for a two-night stay at the Washington Hilton from April 24 to 26. Prosecutors said he later viewed articles about the dinner, including information about its host, schedule and expected attendees.
Allen then bought a one-way Amtrak ticket from Los Angeles to Washington, traveling through Chicago, according to the filing. During the trip, prosecutors said, he viewed an article about Trump’s plans for the dinner and kept notes on his phone about the cross-country journey.
After arriving in Washington and checking into the Hilton on April 24, Allen allegedly used his phone the next day to look up a presidential schedule webpage. Minutes before the alleged attack, prosecutors said, he accessed live coverage of Trump and the first lady en route to the dinner and viewed coverage of the president exiting his vehicle.
Prosecutors said Allen was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38-caliber pistol, two knives, four daggers and ammunition. The government’s filing argues that the weapons, travel records, searches and hotel-room photo show Allen posed an “intolerable risk” if released before trial.
The next key step is Thursday’s detention hearing, where a judge will decide whether Allen remains in custody while the federal case moves forward.
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