Suspect in shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner wrote manifesto

Officials identified Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, Calif., as the prime suspect in the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington on Saturday. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said investigators believe the 31-year-old teacher traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, D.C., and then checked in as a guest at the Washington Hilton a day before the dinner. According to law enforcement, Allen legally bought a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun last year. Allen sent a lengthy manifesto to his family minutes before the attack. In the lengthy document, he apologizes to friends and family for bringing them pain but explains his motives for targeting the president and administration officials, according to copies seen by the Associated Press and first reported by The New York Post. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters that Allen will be arraigned on Monday.

What did the manifesto say? The document, allegedly written by Allen, does not mention President Donald Trump by name, but in it, the author wrote that what elected representatives do reflects on him and that he could no longer allow someone he characterized as a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” He said his targets were administration officials and ranked them from highest to lowest. Security guards, Secret Service, and members of the media were not targets but would be if they got in his way, he wrote. The author of the manifesto also wrote rebuttals to common arguments, including that it would be Christian to turn the other cheek. He insisted it was not Christian to stand by while other people were oppressed. The manifesto ends with the author calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin.” In a postscript, he expressed surprise at how little security there was at the hotel the day before and how easily he checked into a room with his weapons.

What was security like at the hotel? Guests had to present a dinner ticket or email screenshot of an invitation to a private reception on Saturday in order to gain access to the venue. The Secret Service secured only the dinner space, passing guests through a metal detector one floor above the main entrance. According to hotel security camera footage, the gunman ran past the first Secret Service checkpoint and was apprehended at the top of the staircase leading down to the ballroom doors.

Dig deeper: Listen to my report on The World and Everything in It podcast for my eyewitness account of what happened Saturday night.