Assassination Attempt Suspect Charged

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**SPEAKER_5** (0:34)
Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for being here. On Saturday night, as you all know, an act of violence occurred at a gathering that symbolizes something fundamental to our system of government.

**Rachel Abrams** (0:48)
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:54)
Today, the Department of Justice filed three federal charges in United States District Court against Cole Thomas Allen.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:03)
On Monday, the man accused of storming the White House Correspondents' Dinner with multiple weapons was charged in federal court in Washington, DC.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:12)
Violence has no place in civic life. It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who serve them, and it certainly cannot continue to be used against the president of the United States.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:28)
Today, Devlin Barrett explains what we're learning about the suspect, his plan to target the president, and whether this entire event should ultimately be thought of as a security failure or success.
It's Tuesday, April 28th. Devlin Barrett, welcome back to The Daily.

**Devlin Barrett** (2:01)
Thanks for having me.

**Rachel Abrams** (2:02)
So we've been getting some clarity on who this shooter was who attempted to storm the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday. Details have been emerging since this happened, but Devlin, you covered the Justice Department for The Times. Tell us what we learned on Monday.

**Devlin Barrett** (2:16)
So on Monday, there were a few key developments. First, the suspect Cole Allen was formally charged in a criminal complaint. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president. That wasn't the only charge, but it's the most important charge by far, because that charge carries a potential life sentence.
The other two charges in the criminal complaint are transportation of a firearm across country, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. That charge basically means that he fired the weapon while committing a crime. One thing that officials have emphasized since this happened is that the first round of charges aren't going to be their last word on this. There may be more charges added as they understand the evidence better and as they have a better grasp on what exactly they think happened.
We also learned a little more about the sequence of events in terms of how authorities think this very tense, very fast moving incident took place on Saturday night.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:20)
Let's talk for a moment about the suspect. At this point, what have we learned about his background?

**Devlin Barrett** (3:27)
Once this happened, obviously, we've been trying to figure out as much as we can about his background, about his life. He's 31, he's from Torrance, California. His name is Cole Allen, and he's by all accounts a smart guy. He has a master's in computer science. He went to Caltech, which is not an easy school to get into. We know that he was raised in the Protestant church, and his father was a church elder. And in talking to people who know him and talk to some of his former students, because he worked as a tutor for a good bit of time, they all describe him as nice, cheerful, a bit of a nerd.
And all of them that have been interviewed by reporters express shock and surprise that the person they knew as this tutor and academic would do anything like this. We also know that he left behind a kind of apology note, an explanation note to his friends and family.

**Rachel Abrams** (4:26)
Like many people, I read the letter that he wrote and it is apologizing for what he's done. It's sort of a goodbye letter to people that he loves. It is imagining at times a Q&A where he imagines criticism and then he imagines what he would say in response to that criticism about his actions.
Do we have any information about what radicalizes man that made him go from being angry and aggrieved to actually picking up weapons, traveling across the country and attempting to assassinate the president?