By Jim Thomas | Saturday, May 23, 2026
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro urged a federal judge on Friday to reject a defense motion seeking to remove her and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche from prosecuting Cole Tomas Allen, a California man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
As of Saturday, no ruling has been issued.
The government’s filing describes the disqualification standard as “extraordinarily high” and the requested relief as a “drastic measure.”
Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was indicted on May 5 on four counts: attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, transporting a firearm and ammunition across state lines to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Prosecutors say he ran a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton on April 25, fired a Mossberg pump-action shotgun, and struck an officer in a bullet-resistant vest before being subdued. Trump and other attendees were unharmed.
The question now before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, is whether Pirro and Blanche can prosecute a case in which they were inside the ballroom when shots were fired.
Allen’s federal public defenders, Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe, argued in a May 7 motion that the two officials are potential witnesses and “purported victims” because the government may cast administration figures as intended targets.
The defense also pointed to what it described as a decades-long personal friendship between Pirro and Trump, which it said compounded an “appearance of partiality.”
Pirro’s response rejects that framing.
Quoting prior case law, the filing argues the “burden of proof to disqualify Government counsel is extraordinarily high” and that courts could “only rarely, if ever,” imagine disqualifying an entire U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The filing contends that mere presence at the event does not create a legally cognizable conflict, posing rhetorical questions about whether Amtrak passengers seated near Allen, or every attendee and their family members, would likewise be disqualified.
The filing dismisses the defense motion as resting on “a smattering of press clippings” and contends that neither Pirro nor Blanche qualifies as a victim or witness “in any legally meaningful way.”
Pirro acknowledged some attendees might count as victims “in a colloquial sense” but said that label does not trigger recusal.
The defense had floated appointing a special prosecutor as an alternative.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden set a status conference for June 29.
