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Any Moment: DOJ Holds Briefing on Press Dinner Shooting Suspect; Press Dinner Suspect Charged with Attempting to Assassinate Pres. Trump; Justice Dept Holds Briefing as Press Dinner Suspect is Charged. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 27, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:01:03]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news to CNN. At any moment, the nation's top Justice Department officials are set to speak to reporters after the suspected gunman in the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack was charged in court.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Just last hour, the 31-year-old from California was charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, as well as two other federal gun charges. CNN's Katelyn Polantz was inside a federal court when the suspect made his first appearance.

Tell us what you saw, what you heard when you were inside there, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Brianna and Boris, this defendant appears for the first time in federal court this afternoon. And U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, she was in the room. Several prosecutors, several U.S. Marshals were all there looking on.

And whenever the prosecutors stood up, we did learn a couple things about this case that were new to us. He is being charged at this time with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States. Specifically, that is something that Prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine told the judge in court.

And as he was read these charges, including that one, which carries a potential life sentence if he is convicted and has to serve time in prison, Cole Allen, he spoke very confidently. He spoke very clearly and loudly into the microphone. At one point, he was looking directly at Pirro, a real dead stare from the defendant at the defense table. At another point in time, he was looking at the complaint that had those three charges outlined.

And some of these documents have only just become available at this very moment, just a couple of minutes ago. What I'm seeing so far in them is it's just a short statement of facts that prosecutors and investigators have gathered so far. But they do say that Cole Allen not only had made the reservation well in advance of the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, where he took two guns, he did get one shot off of one of those guns before he fell to the ground, and a U.S. Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, who was wearing a ballistic vest at the time.

And ultimately, that alleged manifesto that law enforcement has gotten of Cole Allen through apparently his family members, he scheduled it to send at around 8:40 P.M. the night of the dinner, right around the time that he was apprehended. And we have seen those pictures of him on the ground at the Washington Hilton after the shots were fired.

There are going to be more proceedings in this case, many, many to come. This wasn't even an arraignment today, nor was his detention hearing. There's going to be arguments this Thursday, Brianna and Boris, where both sides are going to argue to a magistrate judge in this federal courthouse here in Washington that Cole Allen should remain behind bars.

The prosecutors say that he is dangerous because this was a charge of a violent crime, that he has this maximum life sentence possible, and that there is a federal terrorism enhancement here on these charges. Now, he has no prior arrests or convictions, so we'll see what the judge says and how this moves forward.

KEILAR: So, Katelyn, just to be clear, Thursday is the detention hearing?

POLANTZ: That's right. Detention hearing is on Thursday, and then there will be another hearing scheduled May 11th, where there could potentially be witnesses and evidence. That's called a preliminary hearing, where they would go into more detail about the charges. But, of course, nothing has been shown to a grand jury at this point in time, because this is so early in this case, in this investigation.

There were a couple photos in court today where the prosecutors handed printout photos, basically, of the guns, or the alleged guns, that were found with Cole Allen. And so, the defense team was able to look at those for the first time. That's a sort of gathering of information that could potentially be shown to a grand jury in the future, and then there would be an indictment and more formal proceedings to come after that.

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KEILAR: All right. Katelyn, thank you so much for that. We're joined now by CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, and CNN Senior Correspondent Josh Campbell.

Elie, just talk to us a little bit about the charges here. If you're expecting, ultimately, to see more, what do you think?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So obviously the big news is this defendant now faces a charge of attempted assassination of the President of the United States. That was just added since the initial charges lodged over the weekend. And that tells me, first of all, that DOJ is acting aggressively, but also carefully. If you look at the complaint, which has now just come out a few

minutes ago -- I was just looking at it -- it seems that attempted assassination charge is very well founded. It is based almost entirely on the writings, the manifesto, whatever you want to call it, that this individual sent to his family members. If you look at that, it's quite clear that his explicit intent was to try to kill the President of the United States.

Now, when this press conference begins, I expect the officials to explain the basis for the charge. I would also be interested to see if they're open to the possibility of additional charges, because it does sound like more people than just Donald Trump were the intended targets here.

So, we could see -- and there's no reason prosecutors can't continue to add to this indictment -- we could see additional charges for attempted assassination of other government officials.

SANCHEZ: And Josh, what are you looking to hear at this press conference?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, we want those additional details about kind of the timeline that they've been piecing together, if there's any information that we would get about what, you know, people in his orbit might have stated. A law enforcement source told me that his family has been extremely cooperative.

But, you know, I agree with Elie on that document itself, and, you know, we're not talking about a threat to the President charging him with that. We're talking about attempting to kill the President of the United States. And that so-called manifesto is damning. I mean, you look in there, he essentially lays out the -- the targets in order of succession within the U.S. government. He clearly has animus for President Donald Trump.

And you look at some of the other evidence, you know, when we're talking about attempted assassination, we're talking about substantial, overt steps that were taken in order to try to conduct this act. You look at that video that we've obtained, that CCTV from the hotel, where he is at a dead sprint running past that security checkpoint. He's heavily armed. He's got a shotgun. He has a pistol. He has several knives. Law enforcement source told me that when we talk about knives, we're not talking about pocket knives. We're talking about combat tactical-style knives racing towards the location where the President of the United States is after just writing that his intent was to kill the president. That is extremely strong evidence, guys.

KEILAR: Yes, and Josh, we're just learning some interesting details here from the court filings that the Secret Service officer, it sort of describes a timeline here that as he went through the security checkpoint, we know this all happened incredibly quickly -- as he did so, it says that the Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot and that the Secret Service officer, VG (ph), was shot once in the chest. The officer, thank goodness, was wearing a ballistic vest at the time, and it says that officer drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at Allen. Allen fell to the ground, suffered minor injuries, but was not shot.

We also heard, Josh, from a -- a witness telling Wolf Blitzer that basically he had fallen at her feet, so there's sort of a question of if -- if he stumbled. What are you learning just about how this all went down from these documents and the new reporting?

CAMPBELL: Well, early on, there was a question about whether it was indeed an exchange of gunfire or whether it was just the shooter himself who was firing. A law enforcement source told me yesterday, as we reported, that no, that officer you mentioned did open fire, but you can imagine after that person had been struck, you have the chaos of this person running. That could have been the reason why these officers, who are highly trained in firearms shooting, maybe didn't hit the intended target.

We still don't know what caused him to go down. Was it because he was being fired upon and then was, you know, trying to duck away from that? Did he actually trip, as that witness suggested may have been the case? But nevertheless, he went down and he was then, you know, surrounded by agents. They stripped him of his clothes. I'm told that that was in order to check for any wounds, any additional weapons that he had on him.

And I'm also told that initially, you know, once they determined that there were shots from both sides, the goal was determined, well, how many rounds did he fire? How many rounds did the officer fire? His weapon system that he had was a shotgun, which makes a very distinct sound compared to a pistol that a Secret Service officer has. The shotgun has this baritone concussive blast that is very, again, distinguishing.

[15:10:03]

And the law enforcement source I had talked to said that initially that he thought he fired one to two rounds. That officer fired three to four rounds. But they said that the FBI is currently going over the ballistics or looking at the shell casings in order to determine how many rounds. They're also looking at that vest that that officer had on to try to determine what -- what indeed struck that officer. All that remains part of the investigation.

KEILAR: Yes, I spoke with a witness to the sound of it who was down at the bottom of the stairs, who is an Army veteran who said he heard several shots, but also wasn't expecting to. And it's hard to count when you're not expecting ...

CAMPBELL: Yes.

KEILAR: ... something. But certainly, someone who'd be more accustomed to hearing that. Elie and Josh ...

CAMPBELL: It's interesting.

KEILAR: Yes, go on real quick. CAMPBELL: I was -- I was just going to say you're -- you're spot on.

And that's why you reminded me a law enforcement source told me they'd been asking for videos of people who were there as well, so they could then hear for themselves. Because, as you mentioned, the human ear, when you're not expecting something, you may not be able to process. But you make the great point. That's why they've been asking witnesses for that video so they can listen for themselves.

SANCHEZ: And we just watched as DOJ officials appear to flip over some of their visual props for this press briefing. You see what appears to be the -- the shotgun that the suspect used on Saturday night, Elie, as we're awaiting what appears to be the imminent start of this and -- and on the other side, you see a handgun and what looked like several knives. I -- I wonder if there is any defense that you can imagine shaping up for this suspect.

HONIG: Well, the short answer, Boris, is no. I mean, he will have some defense, but there's no question it was him, right? You can hardly have more clear proof that it was him. There's no question he fired his weapon. There's no question he hit a Secret Service agent or the -- the vest that that agent was wearing.

And when you look at that manifesto, there's no question what his intent, what his plan is. It's not coded. It's not spoken in sort of general or theoretical terms. It's quite clear and quite specific.

Now, what does that mean for this defendant, for this defense team? Sometimes the job of a defense lawyer is simply to make sure that your client gets a fair process and gets a fair trial. You get the discovery. If there's maybe some pretrial motions, some technical motions, you make that. And then you advise the client that if you want to plead guilty, that may enable me to ask the judge to sentence you to some leniency. Or you always have the right to go to trial. But in terms of this defendant somehow beating this case, I'd say the odds are a million to one.

KEILAR: And Josh, and I hope someone at DOJ is kind of seeing the pictures that are coming in because there is a glare problem with their visual props. And these are important, Josh. These are -- no, these are really important, though. It's important that we see this.

CAMPBELL: Yes.

KEILAR: We've been talking about the weapons. They're just having a little bit of an issue with where the light is in correspondence to their actual visual aids there. But talk to us about what you see. We see the pistol. We see the shotgun. And then we can see kind of the knives. It's hard to be clear what those lower two photos are in the -- the four -- the four-photo poster. What are you making out?

CAMPBELL: Right. Yes. So, and -- and I don't know if on the flier (ph) or control room has it or I -- I got from a law enforcement source what that shotgun actually looks like as it was on the floor of that hotel room. This was right after the incident. So, we might get a better, clearer picture of that.

But as far as what's on the -- on the left, so you have the pistol, the handgun. Here comes the Attorney General.

SANCHEZ: Josh, yes. Sorry to cut you off. Let's go ahead and listen to the Deputy Attorney or the Acting Attorney General of the U.S.

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for being here.

On Saturday night, as you all know, an act of violence occurred at a gathering that symbolizes something fundamental to our system of government, the ability of a free press and public officials to come together in celebration and not fear. The act was stopped because of the courage and -- excuse me -- that act, that horrible act was stopped because of the courage and professionalism of law enforcement.

The officers who responded without hesitation and did their jobs as they were trained to do. Secret Service agents promptly tackled and detained the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen.

The President and all the protectees and participants at the dinner were safe. One brave officer was injured and is receiving care and has been released from the hospital. I want to make this clear, this man was a floor above the ballroom with hundreds of federal agents between him and the President of the United States.

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The Department of Justice approaches incidents like this with urgency and clarity of purpose. Violence has no place in civic life. It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who serve them. And it certainly cannot continue to be used against the President of the United States. We are investigating this matter fully. We will apply the law fairly, and we will ensure that accountability is swift and certain.

But we also should recognize what did not happen. Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they are trained to do. This was not an accident. It was a result, as we know now, of preparation. But the men and women who protected us that night were trained, professional, and had an enduring commitment to the rule of law.

Today, the Department of Justice filed three federal charges in United States District Court against Cole Tomas Allen.

The first count is attempted assassination of the President of the United States. This count is punishable by up to life in prison.

The second count is interstate transportation of a firearm to commit a felony. This is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

And the third count is discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, which is punishable by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum of life. And the 10 years is consecutive to any other sentence imposed.

Just to go through very quickly the timeline, which many of you in this room already know. The defendant, Allen, made a hotel reservation at the Washington Hilton for April 24th through April 26th. On April 21st of this year, he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

On April 24th, he arrived in Washington, D.C. at approximately one o'clock in the afternoon, and checked in to the Washington Hilton. Approximately at 8:40, on the night of April 25th, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the terrace level of the hotel, which is, again, a floor above where the dinner was taking place. He ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun.

As he did so, U.S. Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot. One Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked. This heroic officer, who was hit, fired five times at Allen, who was not shot, but fell to the ground, and was promptly arrested.

I want to thank everybody who worked tirelessly on Saturday, Sunday, and continuing today. This includes members of the FBI, and Director Patel is going to address that in a minute. It includes members of the Metropolitan Police Department, who were immediately on the scene, the chief, the mayor, to make sure that law enforcement was available to do their jobs, and had -- had all the tools they needed to do so. And lastly, the United States Attorney's Office here in D.C., our U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, and her team.

Prosecutors stayed up all night long, didn't sleep all day yesterday, making sure that we got what we needed from all over the country, it included search warrants in California, search warrants here in DC. Multiple interviews that have been conducted already of witnesses and of family members of the charged individual and -- and continue to work hard today.

This investigation is ongoing, it's not complete. A lot of the information that -- that the media is hearing through leaks or sources, some of it is true, some of it is not true. And at the right time, you will hear information from us as appropriate. I'd like to ask our U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, to say a few words, and then followed by Director Patel. Thank you.

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Thank you, Mr. Attorney General.

Cole Allen's journey of accountability in the criminal justice system starts today. Todd Blanche just indicated to you the charges. Those charges are only three charges that are in the complaint that has been presented in federal district court about an hour ago. There will be additional charges as this investigation continues to unfold. But make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the President of the United States. With the defendant making clear what his intent was.

[15:20:02]

And that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking Cabinet officials as he could. This is the kind of situation that we cannot tolerate. And as the Attorney General has just indicated, it could have been so much worse but for the reality that we had the Secret Service, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, and the FBI.

Now, the facts make it very clear what this intent was. You may recall that it was on March 2nd that the President indicated that he would be attending this public event at the -- at the Hilton. And on April 6th, that's when Cole Allen first made a hotel reservation at the Washington Hilton for three nights, the 24th, the 25th and the 26th.

It was on April 21st that he traveled all the way from the West Coast, from home -- from his home near L.A., he gets to Chicago on April 23rd. And it has been indicated he arrives in D.C. on the 24th, and he checks into the hotel at about 3 P.M. He stays overnight. He is very much aware that the President and the First Lady entered the ballroom at 8 P.M. And it was at 8:40 that he made a decision to rush the ballroom.

And thank goodness, law enforcement, the Secret Service was able to prevent him from getting into that ballroom. He was not injured other than some kind of scrape on his knee.

Now, as indicated, these are the weapons that the defendant had on his person. You can see that's a 12-gauge pump-action Mossberg shotgun, it's a 38 semi-automatic. He had at least three knives and all kinds of paraphernalia. So, any -- any suggestion that he wasn't there to do harm is absurd. We will prove when he purchased these guns, they were purchased in California. Why is that relevant? It is relevant because he crossed interstate lines with those firearms. And those are the firearms that he used on the night of the 25th, or attempted to use at the very least.

Now, the manifesto also makes clear about his expected rules of engagement. You know, you can look at it and read it, and it may seem kind of la, la, la. But at the end, make no mistake, he says, I am targeting the administration officials. They are my targets, and I'm prioritizing from the top down, the highest ranking from the lowest. And I will not hesitate to get involved in any kind of encounter with anyone who blocks me from the President.

Now finally, let me say one thing. Within days of the President nominating me to be the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, I was at the scene of a double homicide, where one Elias Rodriguez crossed state lines from Chicago with a firearm to commit a felony in the district. He's now indicted for the murder of two individuals, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, here in Washington.

Not long after that, another individual, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, crossed state lines again with a firearm with intent to commit a felony here in Washington. He traveled from the state of Washington. He is now indicted with the murder of Sarah Beckstrom, a National Guardsman, and the attempted murder of National Guard Andrew Wolfe.

Today, we have Cole Allen, another individual, charged with crossing state lines, coming from California with a firearm with the intent to commit a felony here in the district.

Let this be a message to anyone who thinks that Washington, D.C. is the place to act out political violence. And if you are willing to do so with a firearm and cross state lines, we will find you. We will track your steps from the inception of your plan, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. Washington, D.C. is not the place to travel to commit acts of violence. The Constitution and the laws of the United States permit us to register our views through our voices and our votes. What they don't permit is making your views known through violence, especially violence directed at the President of the United States. This is anti-democratic at its core.

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Thank you, Judge. Excuse me. Thank you, General.

[15:25:02]

This one hits a little differently. We were all there. Many of you were there. Many of you watching were there as well. The President was there. The Vice President was there. The Cabinet was there. And what you saw described by the General and the U.S. Attorney is absolutely true.

The President spoke on late Saturday evening with a message of unity and a backing of law enforcement. And we have followed through on that message of unity and the effectuation of law enforcement across this country. This FBI is grateful to the United States Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and our interagency partners, including the Metropolitan Police Department, for swiftly jumping into action.

All of us on there put us in a unique position, but all of us also acted uniquely. The Washington Field Office jumped into action immediately, sending a mobile command center to the scene, along with our evidence response technicians, who showed up in speedy fashion to make sure we could collect the evidence that the prosecutors in the department needed to make this announcement today.

Also on scene, you were told about the brave heroics of the United States Secret Service and other members of law enforcement. And that should be celebrated by every single American. They did exactly what they were trained to do. They stopped a massive attack from becoming even worse. They stood in the way, they safeguarded America, and they should be nothing but applauded for their bravery and their dedication to their mission and their selfless sacrifice to this country.

The FBI, along with standing up mobile command units, evidence tech response team, and Washington SWAT on scene, also established our NC3, our National Crisis Coordination Center, almost immediately. And almost immediately in parallel, we stood up our command center at the Washington Field Office under ADIC, Darren Cox's leadership.

Throughout the evening, we immediately began working with our Department of Justice partners to find the evidence necessary, to effectuate the legal process necessary, and enter into the suspect's room at the Washington Hilton, successfully and lawfully, and obtain the relevant evidence for exploitation that was on scene.

Back at the headquarters division in the Washington Field Office, we were coordinating a national scale investigation that literally spanned it from coast to coast. As you heard, FBI agents, along with the interagency, were immediately dispatched to the suspect's home in California, where we conducted interviews that provided critical information about this horrific attack. We also dispatched investigators and agents to New London, Connecticut, where we conducted further interviews that provided necessary information that you will find in this criminal complaint, as the United States Attorney has just laid out.

While officers were working diligently through the night to conduct those interviews, we were also conducting interviews of witnesses on scene. Those interviews are ongoing. As you know, there was almost 2,000 people there. We are sifting through and prioritizing who to talk to, and -- and we will get to each and every one of you with any bit of relevant information.

Again, we ask everybody who has any relevant information, like I did on Saturday night with the President, 1-800-CALL-FBI. Any piece of information is information we want to have and must receive.

On top of the on-scene response by this FBI, the headquarters response, and the Washington Field Office response, the FBI flipped on its enterprise-wide response to this critical incident. What does that mean? We dispatched fixed-wing assets across the country so that we could immediately transport evidence that was acquired in California and Connecticut and sent it to our laboratories in Quantico for analysis. We collected the shell casings on scene, including the firearms and the weapons that the judge talked about. Those were also sent to our Quantico laboratories for immediate analysis.

America should be proud that this FBI acted with the urgency that was needed for the moment that we had to answer. The President rightly said that we will act in a unified fashion, and it's because of President Trump's leadership and backing of the blue, every single person in law enforcement that I stood with into late evening hours on Saturday, early evening hours on Sunday, and all day yesterday and today are thrilled to wear the badge and defend this country. Each and every one of them deserves our thanks, and I encourage everyone listening to go out there and shake the hand of a federal agent or police officer and say thank you for doing their job. Thank you for training endlessly to make sure they meet the mission requirements.

And for me as a director of the FBI, I want to thank our headquarters components for working diligently with our prosecutors. And make sure that the American public knows it's not just federal agents that do this works. It's our intelligence analysts, our support staff, our laboratories, our fixed-wing assets, our critical incident response groups, our hostage rescue teams. Agents sprang into action, got out of bed, and haven't slept since. These prosecutors haven't slept since, and I promise you, they're not going to be sleeping. They are going to give you every piece of evidence.

As the General said, we will make public, when appropriate, to protect the integrity of this investigation, to make sure that due process is served, and we will meet the highest standards of the Constitution as we always do.

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And that is when we will continue to disclose information. I know the public has a yearning for information, but just remind yourself of how much information you have already received.