Federal prosecutors have released security camera footage showing the moment Cole Tomas Allen allegedly tried to storm the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in an attempt to kill Donald Trump. The edited video was posted on social media by Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington DC.
In a caption accompanying the footage, Ms Pirro claimed it showed Allen casing the hotel the night before the event and then shooting a Secret Service agent as he rushed through a metal detector checkpoint. She said there was no evidence the agent, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was hit by friendly fire. The video, which is slowed down and annotated, includes no audio and has been provided to the court where Allen is charged.
The footage shows four muzzle flashes from an agent's gun, but it is not clear whether Allen discharged his weapon. Secret Service Director Sean Curran told Fox News that Allen was not stopped by gunfire but tripped over a box used to transport a metal detector. Curran confirmed Allen was not hit by any of the five shots fired at him, saying the suspect hit his knee on one of the magnetometer boxes and began to fall.
The government maintains Allen fired first, hitting the agent who returned fire. However, this has been challenged by Allen's public defenders and a Washington Post analysis of the security footage, which documented only four shots, all by the Secret Service agent. In a letter to prosecutors, the defenders noted that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested the government was still working to produce ballistic evidence.
Allen, a tutor from Torrance, California, was charged on Monday with attempting to assassinate the US president, transportation of firearms to commit a felony and unlawful discharge of a firearm during violence. He has not yet entered a plea and agreed on Thursday to remain in federal custody while his case proceeds.
