DOJ says WHCA dinner shooting suspect took mirror selfie before attack
The man charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump last weekend took a mirror selfie just before the shooting, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday.
The photo was included in a memorandum supporting pretrial detention filed by the DOJ, which said that suspect Cole Allen took the photo roughly a half hour before the incident.
The photo shows the 31-year-old man in a black dress shirt and red tie while wearing a small leather bag “consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person.” The butt of a handgun can be seen from a shoulder holster, with a knife, a pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters sheathed around his belt.
Allen then left his room at the Washington Hilton 12 minutes later and opened his phone to watch live media coverage of Trump reaching the hotel to attend the White House correspondents’ dinner, according to the DOJ. He also searched “trump white house correspondents dinner” on a search engine before sending prescheduled emails with an “Apology and Explanation” attachment.
The attachment included apologies to Allen’s parents, relatives, colleagues and “to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.”
“I am a citizen of the United State of America,” the attachment later reads. “What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
The DOJ stated that after the emails were sent out, “the defendant rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun.”
The DOJ accused Allen of possessing a Mossberg 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with several cartridges, a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol with 10 rounds of ammunition, two additional handgun magazines, two knives, four daggers, needlenose pliers and wire cutters.
“Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history,” the DOJ stated. “This was a planned attack of unfathomable malice that risked the lives of hundreds of people whose only transgression was attending an annual event celebrating the media and featuring the President of the United States.”
“It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence,” the memo reads.
Allen did not enter a plea during his arraignment on Monday. He was charged with the attempted assassination of the president, the transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
If convicted of attempting to assassinate Trump, he will face a sentence of up to life in prison. The second charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, and the third charge carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years to run consecutively with any other sentence.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Saturday that more charges were likely, including a charge of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
The shooting would mark the third prominent assassination attempt on Trump’s life. The previous two were in 2024, before Trump won back the presidency. The first was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., and the second was while he was golfing in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
