The Trump DOJ is a joke on every level and the proof is in the pudding of the failed attempts to indict people who didn’t commit any crimes. And while that might seem like a good thing in those cases, overall it’s a big problem for the country as a whole. Which brings us to the Cole Allen charges:
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was arraigned today in U.S. District Court on charges stemming from the April 25, 2026, shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, announced the Department of Justice.
Allen is charged by complaint with one count of attempt to assassinate the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm & ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well there’s a problem:
It’s one of the lingering mysteries of Saturday’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Did alleged assailant Cole Allen fire the shot that struck a Secret Service officer in his bulletproof vest?
Prosecutors believe that Allen, who is charged with an attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump, fired at least one round from a 12-gauge shotgun. That’s evident from the fact that he is also charged with one count of “discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.” But Allen is not charged with assaulting law enforcement, and the Trump administration has not provided details about whether the round from Allen’s gun is the one that hit the officer.
You don’t say.
Blanche said investigators’ initial understanding is that the Secret Service officer who was struck fired his weapon five times at Allen but didn’t hit him. He also said a preliminary review suggested Allen fired his weapon once, with an empty casing remaining inside the firearm, suggesting that he didn’t pump it to reload. He also emphasized that buckshot from a gun like Allen’s is difficult to trace.
“It’s not an exact science,” Blanche said. “It scatters everywhere. Sometimes it just disappears actually.”
I’m not a ballistics expert, but it seems to me that it’s relatively easy to determine if the weapon was fired at all, no? Because if it hadn’t been fired then there’s no need to look for a disappearing bullet, right?
It was funny and satisfying when a different officer who claimed he had been assaulted by a sandwich had his case thrown out of court:
Lairmore said he “could feel it through his ballistic vest” and it “exploded all over” him after the Subway stack hit him. He said he “could smell the onions and mustard” on his uniform, and even had an onion string hanging by his police radio later that night. The fast-food mustard, he said, stained his shirt.
[deletia]
They also pressed Lairmore on why there are no evidentiary photos of stains on his shirt or of the sandwich after it was thrown, only a video posted to social media platform Instagram from a bystander showing the sandwich mostly intact. Lairmore said the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. took over the investigation after Dunn was detained, and Lairmore said the sandwich appeared at least “bent and out of shape” in its wrapper.
In that case the DOJ’s pathological lying was exposed by the court system, and the verdict served the public.
But in this case the lying has serious consequences: Allen did mean to kill people. He might try it again if he’s not convicted and set free on a technicality. And while his civil rights are absolutely sacrosanct, it does not serve the public to set him free because these assholes can’t just tell the truth. It is wrong to kill people and people who plan to or do it should go to jail.
Allen handed them all of the evidence they needed to convict him in the courts. But because everything the administration lackeys do is for the glorification of President Grievance, they might end up setting a criminal free. And we’re all less safe for it.
I’ll leave you with this:
