Accused would-be killer of Trump snapped photo just before alleged assault, say lawyers

Court documents reveal that Cole Allen, a 31-year-old accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, took a selfie in his Washington Hilton hotel room at approximately 8:03pm ET on April 25, 2026, just before launching his alleged attack, with the photo showing him dressed in black and armed with various weapons.

n

This image, released as part of the US Government's Memorandum in Support of Pretrial Detention filed on April 29, 2026, was taken with a cellphone in the mirror of his room, according to the memorandum, and is now a key piece of evidence in the case against him.

n

Cole Allen was charged in court on April 27 with attempting to assassinate the Republican president, and faces a sentence of up to life in prison if convicted of the crime, which occurred during the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton.

n

Prosecutors said that Allen launched his attack at around 8:30 pm on Saturday, descending from his room and trying to get into the basement ballroom where Trump and other senior officials were attending a media gala dinner, but was tackled and detained in a chaotic scuffle with security guards.

n

Although shots were fired during the incident, no one was killed, and Allen was found to have spent his last minutes checking websites that covered Trump's whereabouts, arming himself, and posing for the aforementioned selfie, which showed him carrying a knife, a shoulder holster for a handgun, and a bag for ammunition.

n

As he left his room, scheduled emails were sent to friends and family with a manifesto explaining his actions, which prosecutors described as an attack of "unfathomable malice", and the details of which have emerged in a filing asking a Washington federal court to deny bail to Allen.

n

The filing stated that "the court should detain the defendant pending trial" because "the political nature of the defendant's crimes further counsels in favor of detention", given that Allen's motivation for committing the crimes exists as long as he disagrees with the government.

n

Cole Allen, a highly educated teacher from California, had traveled to Washington with an arsenal that included a shotgun, a handgun, and numerous knives, taking a famously scenic train route via Chicago, during which he recorded his appreciation for the changing landscapes.

n

Once in his Hilton room, Allen wrote of his surprise at what he thought was the lax security in the hotel, saying he had walked in "with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat", according to the court filing.

n

In the email to friends and family, Allen allegedly listed his targets as members of the Trump administration "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest", and said he hoped not to kill Secret Service bodyguards or other law enforcement or hotel guests.

n

According to the court filing, Cole discarded his long coat once he reached the hotel entrance area and sprinted through one set of metal detectors, his shotgun at the ready, before allegedly firing the shotgun "in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom".

n

A Secret Service agent then fired five times, but did not hit Cole, who fell and was then restrained, suffering a minor injury to his knee but not being shot, as stated in the filing, which also noted that this was the third alleged assassination attempt against Trump in less than two years.

n

The White House has blamed Democratic politicians and the media for inciting extremism, but Trump, 79, has broken multiple Washington precedents with his violent rhetoric against opponents, journalists, foreign leaders, and immigrants, a fact that has been widely reported and criticized.