A federal judge on Monday rejected an effort by alleged White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooter Cole Tomas Allen to disqualify acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from his criminal case, finding no conflict of interest with their continuation on the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden denied Allen’s motion, concluding that Blanche and Pirro’s attendance at the April 26 event and Pirro’s friendship with President Donald Trump did not warrant recusal.
“Neither Blanche nor Pirro is a victim of Allen’s alleged crimes,” McFadden wrote in an 18-page decision. “Allen stands accused of attempting to assassinate the President, assaulting a United States officer with a deadly weapon, and committing two firearm offenses.”
Prosecutors say Allen, 31, attempted to assassinate Trump after allegedly sprinting through a Secret Service security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton armed with a shotgun while the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was underway.
A federal indictment alleges Allen intended to target Trump and other administration officials before he was stopped by law enforcement. As a result of this alleged attempt, a Secret Service officer was wounded during the incident and was briefly sent to the hospital before being discharged in late April.
Defense attorneys argued Blanche and Pirro should be removed because both attended the dinner and could be considered witnesses or possible victims. They also cited Pirro’s friendship with Trump and public comments both officials made following the shooting.
McFadden, an appointee of Trump, rejected those arguments, finding that “the only people directly and proximately harmed” by the alleged offenses were Trump and the injured Secret Service officer. The judge wrote that the fact that Blanche and Pirro were present at the hotel and theoretically could have been harmed “does not make them ‘victims’ of the charged crimes in a legal sense.”
“Neither Blanche nor Pirro is a victim of Allen’s alleged crimes,” McFadden wrote in an 18-page decision. “Allen stands accused of attempting to assassinate the President, assaulting a United States officer with a deadly weapon, and committing two firearm offenses.”
The ruling comes weeks after another armed suspect was fatally shot by Secret Service agents after allegedly opening fire near a White House security checkpoint, underscoring heightened security concerns surrounding Trump and senior administration officials.
McFadden also dismissed claims that Pirro’s friendship with Trump required her recusal, noting that presidents routinely appoint friends and political allies to senior Justice Department positions.
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Allen has yet to be scheduled for a trial but has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case.
The government and the defendant are still in the midst of working out pretrial discovery matters, and prosecutors have said there will be “thousands of pages and gigabytes of data” produced to the defendant in discovery, given that the scope of his alleged crime stemmed all the way from his home state of California to Washington, D.C.