Suspect accused of trying to kill President

WASHINGTON—The man accused of opening fire outside a Washington press gala over the weekend was charged on Monday with attempting to assassinate President Trump, as officials defended the security at the high-profile dinner but promised to re-evaluate protocols for future events.

Cole Allen, 31 years old, was also charged with two firearms offenses after officials said he charged past a security perimeter and opened fire at the Washington Hilton, the site of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Allen faces a potential life sentence on the attempted assassination charge alone.

During a 15-minute court hearing Monday, Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh said Allen faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years on a charge of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and up to a decade on the separate firearms offense.

Appearing in a blue jumpsuit Monday, Allen gave brief responses—“I do,” “yes, your honor”—to routine questions during his initial court appearance. Asked his highest level of education, he answered that he obtained a master’s degree.

Allen was represented by a pair of federal public defenders, whom Sharbaugh appointed to defend him. Sharbaugh set a hearing for Thursday on the continued detention of Allen, who remains in custody.

Federal public defender Tezira Abe stressed that Allen was presumed innocent and said he had no prior arrests or convictions on his record.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a news conference Monday that Allen could expect additional charges as authorities continue their investigation. A prosecutor from Pirro’s office, Jocelyn Ballantine, said at Monday’s hearing that Allen had traveled across multiple state lines in an attempt to assassinate the president, with a personal arsenal that included a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and three knives.

Ballantine cited the violent nature of the allegations against Allen for seeking to keep him jailed. Allen had written in a screed that authorities have tied to him that he could no longer stand idly by in the face of the Trump administration’s actions, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” he wrote in the 1,000-word document, in which he outlined a hierarchy of targets, including people he intended no harm, like guests or law enforcement, unless they got in his way.

Pirro, speaking Monday at the news conference, said of the suspect’s screed: “He says, ‘I am targeting the administration officials, they are my targets and I am 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.’ ”

Federal prosecutors on Monday unsealed a criminal complaint and affidavit against Allen that detailed what they said were his actions over the past month, including that he made the reservation at the Washington Hilton in early April and traveled to Washington by train from Los Angeles. On the night of the shooting, Allen emailed his family and a former employer a document titled “Apology and Explanation,” according to the affidavit.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who submitted the affidavit believes Allen scheduled the email to send just before he carried out the shooting.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the news conference that after the suspect charged a security checkpoint at the Hilton with his long gun, a Secret Service officer was hit in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest. The officer fired five times at the suspect, who wasn’t hit, Blanche said.

In response to a question about whether the suspect fired shots, Blanche said, “We want to get that right so we’re still looking at that.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday didn’t rule out changes to security protocols for Trump following the incident.

“I definitely wouldn’t say changes are out of the question. I think again, it’s up to the White House here, and we view it as a great responsibility to ensure the maximum safety of the president and the vice president and the entire cabinet and so we’re always looking for ways to improve security,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt also said Vice President JD Vance might not attend the correspondents’ dinner if it is rescheduled. Both Trump and Vance were on stage on Saturday, raising questions about the presidential line of succession if the gunman had made his way into the ballroom.

Numerous other leaders in the line of succession were seated in the audience, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R. La.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

White House chief of Staff Susie Wiles plans to convene a meeting this week with key security officials to discuss and evaluate security protocols for Trump-attended events, a senior White House official said.

Trump and the White House still have confidence in the U.S. Secret Service director, Sean Curran, after Saturday, the official said, stressing the “excellent job” Secret Service agents did “neutralizing the shooter” and evacuating key personnel. News of the security meeting was earlier reported by Fox News.

“The security posture, I imagine, is going to be completely different” after Saturday’s incident, FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier Monday during an interview with Fox News.

Meanwhile, the historic preservation group challenging the construction of a ballroom on the White House grounds won’t drop its lawsuit after the shooting at Saturday’s dinner, which Trump officials have quickly argued shows the need for a ballroom on White House grounds to keep a president safe. The group said that building the ballroom lawfully requires congressional approval.

The annual dinner isn’t a White House event.

Last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued over Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing and the building of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in its place. The lawsuit alleged that both actions should have been subject to federal reviews.

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com, C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com and Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com