A federal judge privately admonished prosecutors for attempting to grandstand Thursday at a detention hearing for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman, according to a transcript first obtained by CNN.
“I don’t know what’s going on here. I know that you want to present your case, I guess, to some audience other than the Court,” Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told three prosecutors in the courtroom on Thursday out of earshot of the public and press. “I don’t want this to turn into a circus.”
Upadhyaya’s comments highlight a dynamic that has arisen in the six days since Cole Tomas Allen allegedly tried storming the press dinner, with Trump administration officials aggressively describing their theory of the alleged attempted assassination of the president — the third in two years — in news interviews and unsolicited court filings.
Several times, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others in television interviews have gone much further and given more definitive descriptions of the shooting than the detail that’s been represented in court from the FBI and Justice Department line prosecutors. They’ve also emphasized the law enforcement response as a success.
A CNN analysis of hotel surveillance video released by the DC US Attorney’s Office on Thursday, coupled with audio taken from inside the ballroom during the shooting, does not definitively conclude when or if Allen fired a shot. But the audio analysis does indicate that six shots total were fired during the incident, which aligns with initial statements by law enforcement that Allen fired one shot, while a responding officer fired five more.
Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran on Thursday said Allen shot an officer at point-blank range. Pirro said Thursday on Fox News that he fired at the Secret Service officer.
Court filings describing the events have been less definitive, and in some cases have contradicted the initial claims from top administration officials.
The latest available court filing describing what happened reads: “A USSS officer observed the defendant fire the shotgun in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom.”
While Allen faces an initial charge of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, his charges could expand or be changed as a grand jury investigation progresses toward an indictment.
The investigation into the shooting remains in its early stages, the Justice Department has said repeatedly. The Justice Department didn’t respond to specific questions related to the video evidence released Thursday.
Questions about Allen’s intent as he ran toward the ballroom Saturday night are likely to linger over his legal case, and the Justice Department’s initial representations could become more important in court proceedings down the road.
His defense attorneys have already attempted in court filings to sew doubt about whether Allen intended to commit a mass shooting.
CNN’s analysis of video of the Saturday incident does, however, provide more insights into how the shooting unfolded at the event and raises questions about whether the officers were at an appropriate posture when the gunman entered the space.
In the video, Allen is seen entering a door about 35 feet away from where law enforcement officers were breaking down the magnetometers, one level above the ballroom where the dinner was taking place. The door Allen entered led to an elevator bank.
Inside the ballroom, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, several Cabinet officials and thousands of attendees were being served the first course of the dinner.
The video shows a law enforcement K9 and its handler looking inside the door that Allen, who was wearing a long coat that prosecutors say he hid his shotgun under then discarded, entered. The dog briefly enters the door, though it remains unclear what exactly they saw.
Next, the video shows Allen coming back through the door and sprinting toward a group of several law enforcement officers at the security checkpoint.
The officers were in the process of breaking down the magnetometers at the time. One officer, a uniformed member of the Secret Service, appears to notice Allen several seconds before the others.
Suspected White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter charged with attempting to assassinate the president
That officer, who was standing on Allen’s right, near two more members of law enforcement, drew his pistol and aimed it toward Allen. Almost instantaneously, Allen ran through a remaining magnetometer and leveled his shotgun at that Secret Service officer.
The video shows dust near a ceiling light becoming unsettled as Allen levels his shotgun at officers, but before a muzzle flash — a visual light emitting from the barrel of a gun which indicates it has been fired — is seen from a responding Secret Service officer who first noticed Allen.
That dust could have been dislodged by a shot from Allen’s shotgun, even if a muzzle flash from the gun is not visibly apparent due to the quality of the video. Six shots are heard on the audio taken from the ballroom in total, according to Robert Maher, an audio forensic expert at Montana State University, who reviewed the audio for CNN.
It took Allen less than three seconds from the point where he reemerged from the door leading to the elevator bank to when he was through the magnetometer.
The video clearly shows four muzzle flashes from the Secret Service officer who initially noticed Allen. Other members of law enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration, who assisted with security screening at the dinner, appear to react to those gunshots.
As officers rush to restrain Allen, two small objects — apparently knives that law enforcement says he was carrying with him at the time — can be seen sliding back into the frame from the direction which Allen ran.
Law enforcement has said that the officer who fired the shots toward Allen was struck by gunfire in his protective vest. Specifically, a letter the Justice Department sent to Allen’s attorneys on Wednesday says, “at least one fragment was recovered from the crime scene that was physically consistent with a single buckshot pellet,” noting it backs up the Justice Department’s belief he fired at the agent.
Allen’s defense team is still questioning, however, whether Allen actually fired his shotgun — loaded with buckshot that would have sprayed a heavy blast — to hit the agent, according to a letter they wrote to the prosecutors on Wednesday.
Despite limited early information, top Trump administration officials rushed to provide a more definitive account of the incident than the available evidence has so far shown.
Shortly after the shooting, Blanche said Allen was “promptly tackled and detained by law enforcement,” only to be contradicted by prosecutors who said Allen “fell to the ground.” Pirro has said the agent wasn’t hit by friendly fire.
Another photo Pirro’s office released on Thursday shows Allen’s shotgun lying at the bottom of a landing in the stairs to the ballroom, a half floor down from where he was running. In that photo, it is marked with an evidence flag.
At the hearing on Thursday, prosecutors were prepared in court to show the new video and photos they had of the shooting, Allen’s weapons and of the hotel crime scene. Upadhyaya stopped them from doing this in court, because it was not needed after Allen’s lawyers said he agreed to remain detained while he awaited trial, she ruled.
Appearing annoyed, the judge then called the prosecutors and defense team to the bench to speak with them privately, where the judge continued to call out the Justice Department’s approach.
The court released a transcript of the exchange after the hearing following a request to the judge from CNN.
Serving as the backdrop to the admonishment is the political circumstances that some of these officials find themselves in as Trump has signaled an increased openness to replace those — like former Attorney General Pam Bondi — whom he believes do not react quickly and publicly enough to sensitive investigations.
The exchange also highlights how early and incomplete the investigation still is.
“We’re five days into this investigation,” prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine responded to the judge, according to the transcript. “As soon as we have finalized reports and discovery” — meaning evidence that the defense team can review — “that we’re in a position to be able to accurately provide to counsel, we will be doing that. We take our discovery obligations seriously.”
Ballantine then says the US Attorney’s Office wasn’t ready to discuss in open court the documents they have so far from the investigation.
Following the hearing, the US Attorney’s Office put into the court record and posted on social media the videos and photos they had prepared.
They said, in a letter to the judge, the Justice Department “now formally completes the record.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Aleena Fayaz and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
