Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is pictured at a news conference Sunday at Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., after a man opened fire at a media gala attended by President Donald Trump and other top administration officials. (Annabelle Gordon – AFP / Getty Images)
By Nick Givas April 29, 2026 at 11:12am
The Department of Justice released selfies Wednesday taken by alleged gunman Cole Allen, who is accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump and top administration officials during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday.
A government memorandum supporting Allen’s pretrial detention highlighted the photos depicting him strapped with an ammunition bag, knives, and other items.
“At approximately 8:03 p.m., while back inside his hotel room, the defendant used his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror,” the document stated. “In the photograph (below left), the defendant was wearing a black dress shirt, black slacks, and what appears to be a red necktie, tucked into his pants.
“An enhanced version of the image (below right) shows that the defendant also appeared to be wearing a small leather bag consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person (item 1), a shoulder holster (item 2), a sheathed knife consistent in appearance with one of the knives later recovered from his person (item 3), and pliers and wire cutters consistent in appearance with those later recovered from his person (item 4).”
Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, posted some of the photos on the social media site X, showing Allen, 31, taking a mirror selfie around 30 minutes before he allegedly rushed past the security checkpoint and opened fire.
JUST IN: Federal prosecutors release new images and details of Cole Allen and his alleged attempt to assassinate president Trump. Here is a mirror selfie he took about 30 minutes before charging past the magnetometers. https://t.co/SjBVCPQJQO pic.twitter.com/tBPnPDOQPS
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 29, 2026
Cheney also noted that the government didn’t mention any officer being shot in the memo, and instead revealed that after Allen fired his shotgun at the stairs leading to the ballroom, a Secret Service agent fired at him five times and missed.
“NOTABLE: Prosecutors’ memo drops any reference to a USSS officer being hit by a bullet,” Cheney wrote. “It now says an officer observed Allen fire in the direction of the staircase toward the WHCD. That officer then fired at Allen five times but did not hit him.”
NOTABLE: Prosecutors’ memo drops any reference to a USSS officer being hit by a bullet. It now says an officer observed Allen fire in the direction of the staircase toward the WHCD. That officer then fired at Allen five times but did not hit him. https://t.co/SjBVCPQJQO pic.twitter.com/HeqOQ4V61a
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 29, 2026
“Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history,” the government memo added. “The defendant traveled across the country with the explicit aim to kill the President of the United States.
“The defendant, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, two knives, four daggers, and enough ammunition to take dozens of lives, was apprehended by USSS officers mere feet away from the ballroom where his primary target was located, along with other members of the Cabinet,” it continued. “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 concluded. “The proffered evidence of the charged offenses far exceeds probable cause, and the federal bail statute creates a rebuttable presumption that the defendant would pose an intolerable risk of danger to the community if released pending trial.”
Allen was hit with three federal charges Monday, including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.
He also reportedly released a manifesto to family members only minutes before the shooting took place.
On Sunday, the New York Post obtained and published what they reported to be Allen’s full, 1,052-word manifesto in which he refers to himself as “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen.”
There were many disturbing details laid out in the manifesto that included Allen saying he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor” to commit crimes.
He had also planned to target Trump administration officials “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” and was willing to “go through most everyone” at the gala “if it were absolutely necessary.”
Allen rationalized these feelings by stating that anyone who attended the WHCA dinner “[chose] to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor and are thus complicit.”
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Nick Givas has been a reporter for The Daily Caller, Fox News, and served as Managing Editor of the Newsroom at Project Veritas. He’s also hosted three different podcasts, served as a Congressional Communications Director, and had his work featured in The Federalist, Daily Signal, New York Post, and Real Clear Politics.
