Cole Thomas Allen’s courtroom sketch.
Provided by: Dana Verkouteren
Cole Thomas Allen told a judge on Thursday at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last Saturday night that he is waiving for now his right to challenge his stay in prison on charges of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Allen’s waiver was a reversal of his defense team’s request, announced in a court filing Wednesday night, to be released on bail pending trial.
“He accepts custody at this time,” Allen’s attorney, Tejira Abe, told Judge Mokshila Upadhyaya during a hearing Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Abe said Allen reserved the right to object to future detention.
Abe told Upadhyaya that she and Allen’s other lawyer had had difficulty meeting the defendant in recent days, but spoke with him Thursday morning before the hearing.
In a court filing Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office asked Upadhyaya to lock up the 31-year-old California resident without bail pending trial on charges of attempting to assassinate President Trump, transporting firearms and ammunition in interstate commerce, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Mr. Upadhyaya wrote to Mr. Allen on Thursday, asking him to confirm that his lawyer had informed him of the “consequences of granting detention at this time.”
“Yes, sir,” Allen replied in a quiet voice.
During Thursday’s hearing, after Allen confirmed to the judge that he was waiving his right to object to his detention, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones asked Upadhyaya to allow him to continue presenting evidence in support of his motion so that he could revisit the issue in the future.
“What kind of audience is the supplementary information intended for?” Upadhyaya asked. “I noted that he admitted to detention…What is the purpose of the government in putting additional information on the record?”
Mr Jones responded that he wanted to give evidence on Thursday because it had been effective.
“It’s a completely inefficient process,” the judge countered, noting that if Allen were to challenge his detention in the future, prosecutors would have to present evidence to a federal district court judge to rebut it.
“I will be repeating the exact same statements,” Upadhyaya said, irritated by the prosecutor’s demands.
“We deny the government’s request. This is truly unprecedented,” the judge said.
— MS NOW’s Fallon Gallager contributed to this article
