The man accused of firing shots at Saturday night’s WHCD dinner appeared to target members of the president’s administration and likely acted alone, acting attorney general Todd Blanche told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker on Sunday. AG Blanche also said authorities “do not have somebody who’s cooperating” at the moment.
The investigation was no more than 13 hours old when Blanche spoke to Welker, “so those facts can change and they often do change,” he explained. “But from what we know right now, from what we know given what happened last night, and the evidence we’ve gathered so far, we don’t believe anybody else was involved, but again, we have a lot of work left to do, and a lot of evidence left to go through and to collect.”
Blanche also noted authorities are still investigating claims the shooter targeted members of the administration, which might have included the president.
“We’re still looking into that. And so we know that there were some writings, and we’ve already spoken with several witnesses who knew him,” he said. “And I kept it a little general because we do believe it was administration officials. Obviously President Trump is a member of the administration, the head of it, but as far as exacting threats that may have been communicated beforehand, we’re still actively investigating that evidence.”
Blanche also laid out the path the suspect took to arrive at the Hilton hotel. “So we, law enforcement, FBI, Secret Service, Police Departments in Los Angeles and in D.C., worked through the night executing search warrants on a couple different locations and also on devices to try to continue to investigate,” he said. “It’s been about 12 hours or so since the incident happened. And what we believe happened, at least as of now, is that the suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then Chicago to Washington, D.C. where he checked into the hotel where the Correspondents’ Dinner was at in the last day or two.”
It’s also believed the man purchased the two guns he had in the last few years, with Blanche acknowledging the tremendous attention on the case. “I was on the phone with Director Patel after 1:00 in the morning. The FBI agents at both coasts were up all night and will continue during their work. Prosecutors were up all night working, so it’s a tragic, horrible event that happened.”
“I don’t think he’s cooperating with investigators. I want to be careful the way I talk around that, but no, at this point we do not have somebody who’s cooperating,” the AG added. “And I suspect he will be charged formally tomorrow morning in Federal Court in Washington, D.C., and I expect that we’ll go forward from that.”
The alleged shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, has been charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, per U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro. His arraignment is set for Monday, where additional charges are expected to be announced.
