Prosecutors Add D.C. Terrorism Charge Against Man Accused of Trying to Kill Trump at Correspondents' Dinner

Federal prosecutors have raised the stakes against Cole Tomas Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April. A federal grand jury has added an attempted terrorism charge under District of Columbia law to his case, NBC News reported Friday. The new count carries a potential life sentence, according to the New York Post. The Hill reported that the added charge appeared in new court filings Thursday.

The annual dinner is one of Washington's best-known evenings, a black-tie gathering of the press corps and the officials they cover. In April it became a crime scene. Prosecutors allege that Allen ran past security, shot a Secret Service agent and tried to get into the ballroom, The Hill reported. Scripps News described him as storming security at the event, and NBC News reported that Allen was arrested at the dinner.

In May, a federal grand jury in Washington returned an indictment charging Allen with attempting to assassinate the President and assaulting a federal officer, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced. That indictment contained four counts, Scripps News reported. The new terrorism count now sits on top of those charges.

Allen has not been convicted of anything. Like every defendant, he is presumed innocent, and the government must prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury.

Washington is unusual among American cities. The U.S. Attorney's Office there handles both federal crimes and serious local offenses under the D.C. Code, which is why a single federal grand jury can return a mix of federal counts and a District terrorism count against the same defendant. The NBC News report identified the new charge as a D.C. terrorism count.

For prosecutors, the addition does several things.

First, it names the alleged conduct for what the government believes it was. An assassination charge focuses on the target. A terrorism charge asks a jury to look at the purpose behind the violence, and whether it was meant to strike at the government and the public, not only at the people in one ballroom.

Second, it adds another path to the most serious punishment. The Post reported that the terrorism count carries a possible life sentence. Prosecutors often stack charges this way so that a conviction on any one of several counts can still bring a long prison term if a jury or an appeals court rejects another.

Third, it fits a pattern in the same courthouse this year. In April, The Washington Times reported that Brian Cole Jr., the man accused of planting pipe bombs in the capital around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, unrest, faced additional terrorism and weapons-of-mass-destruction charges. Federal prosecutors in Washington have shown they are willing to use the District's terrorism law in the most serious cases of alleged political violence.

Americans have watched too many attempts on the lives of public officials in recent years. Whatever anyone thinks of this President, a bullet aimed at the people's elected leader is an attack on every voter who sent him there, and on the idea that disagreements in a free country are settled at the ballot box. The Secret Service agent who was shot that night stepped into harm's way so that others would not have to, and that courage deserves the gratitude of every American.

It also matters that the answer to violence is the courtroom, not a mob or a rush to judgment. Allen will have lawyers, a judge and a jury. Justice done carefully and in the open is how a lawful nation honors both the victims and its own principles. Scripture describes lawful authority as a servant for good that does not bear the sword in vain, and a fair, firm prosecution is exactly that.

A date for Allen to answer the added charge was not immediately clear in the first reports on the filing. In federal practice, a defendant facing a superseding indictment is typically brought back to court to be arraigned on the new count and to enter a plea, and the judge then sets or adjusts the schedule for pretrial motions and trial.

Defense lawyers can be expected to test whether the terrorism count fits the facts, a fight that will likely play out in written motions before any jury is seated. That is how the process should work. Liberty Bell Report will follow the case and report the next court date once it is set on the docket.