Lawyers for the accused of attempting to assassinate US President Donald Trump, during an official press event last week, asked a judge to lift the suicide prevention measures imposed on their client while he was detained in a Washington prison, noting that a nursing team had recommended ending those measures that deprive him of phone calls and visits.
Published on: 05/03/2026 - 18:41 Last updated: 05/04/2026 - 09:13
Lawyers for the accused of attempting to assassinate US President Donald Trump asked a judge during an official press event last week to lift the suicide prevention measures imposed on their client while he was detained in a Washington prison.
Cole Thomas Allen faces charges of storming a security checkpoint and firing a rifle at a White House correspondents' dinner on April 25.
Harsh detention conditions
When first detained on April 27, Allen was placed in a “secure cell” described as a padded room under 24-hour lockdown and required to wear a “straitjacket-like vest,” his lawyers said in a filing to the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
That status was then relaxed to “suicide prevention measures,” the memo said, meaning Allen is still prohibited from making phone calls, receiving visits from anyone except his legal team, or spending time outside his cell except during legal visits or showers, and accompanied by a guard.
Read also: The shooting during the White House Correspondents' Dinner raises questions about the US President's security arrangements
The memo indicated that a nursing staff recommended on Friday that those procedures be ended, but they were still in place until a public defender visited him that day.
Allen faces charges of attempted murder, shooting during the commission of a violent crime, and illegal transportation of weapons and ammunition across state lines. He has not yet responded to the accusations against him.
An elaborate plan to assassinate Trump and senior officials
Prosecutors say Allen carefully planned to attack Trump and other officials in his administration as they dined with about 2,600 journalists, politicians and others in a ballroom at the Washington Hilton hotel.
They indicated in a legal file that Allen traveled by train from his birthplace in California to Washington in possession of a hunting rifle and a .38-caliber pistol, in addition to knives and daggers, and he “intended to commit a mass shooting inside a room full of the most senior officials in the American government.”
They added that Allen intended to target Trump, citing an email they said he sent to relatives on the eve of the shooting, in which he appeared to refer to Trump as a traitor and a criminal. The letter did not explicitly mention Trump's name, but it referred to the targeting of administration officials at various levels.
Read also: What do we know about the perpetrator of the shooting during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?
France 24/AFP
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