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Alleged WHCD attacker agrees to remain detained

Cole Allen did not ask to be released as he awaits trial.

Guests walk away from the Washington Hilton amid a heavy police presence.

Guests walk away from the Washington Hilton amid a heavy police presence during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, on April 25, 2026. | Ulysse Bellier/AFP via Getty Images

By Kyle Cheney

Cole Allen, the California man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, will remain detained pending trial after he declined to contest the government’s effort to keep him locked up.

Asking to be released would have been an uphill climb for Allen, given the grave charges against him and the evidence that he charged toward a room full of senior government officials while armed. He could challenge his pretrial detention later, as he reviews more of the government’s evidence against him.

The government asserts that Allen intended to assassinate Trump. That claim is based on an email Allen shared with family members minutes before he charged past a security line on Saturday while wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol and several knives. In the email, Allen described his desire to attack senior members of the Trump administration and apologized to his family for concealing his intentions.

Prosecutors say Allen planned his attack weeks in advance, booking a hotel room at the Washington Hilton, where the annual dinner takes place, and timing his arrival to avoid a Secret Service lockdown of the building. Prosecutors’ evidence supporting Allen’s pretrial detention included a mirror selfie he allegedly took 30 minutes before arriving at the security line.

Surveillance video shows that Allen charged past magnetometers at the event’s security perimeter before he was quickly taken down by law enforcement. It remains unclear whether Allen fired his weapon..

Justice Department officials believe he did — and he is charged with discharging his weapon during the incident — but the analysis of that night’s gunshots is still underway.

Thursday’s hearing took an unusual turn after one of the Justice Department prosecutors, Charles Jones, asked Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya to continue with the detention hearing, even though Allen had conceded.

“What is the purpose of the government putting additional information on the record at this point, given that the defendant is agreeing to your motion?” she wondered, calling it a “truly unprecedented” request.

Upadhyaya noted that if Allen later contested his detention, the matter would come before whichever federal judge is ultimately assigned to preside over the trial. Jones said the Justice Department wanted to create a record for that judge to review.

Allen’s attorneys, public defenders Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm, asked Upadhyaya to lean on the Washington, D.C. jail to get their client out of a 24-hour isolation “safe cell,” saying he presents no danger to other inmates. But Upadhyaya declined to intervene, saying she doesn’t have authority to direct the D.C. jail’s internal housing and safety decisions.