The gunman who tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association planned to spare one Trump appointee: FBI Director Kash Patel.
Cole Thomas Allen, 31, sent a sprawling manifesto to his family moments before he exchanged gunfire Saturday with Secret Service agents at the Washington Hilton in D.C., the New York Post first reported.
In the document, Allen referred to himself as the “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen,” and outlined his plan to kill Donald Trump and his top administration officials, with the notable exception of Patel.
“Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” he wrote.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the FBI for comment.
It’s unclear why he made an exception for Patel, who faced backlash for appearing to linger aimlessly in a video captured after gunfire erupted outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Patel was seen being ushered out of the Hilton through the front lobby at 10:02 p.m., about 90 minutes after shots were fired, The Washington Post reported. His girlfriend, who was also invited by the Mail, was hiding in a room holding hands with another man but later left with Patel, the New York Times reported.
Later, Patel joined Trump and other administration officials for a press conference at the White House, where he lavished praise, telling Trump during the briefing he “inspire[s]” law enforcement.
“You give them the resources that they need, and you know, they know that you have their back, and that is a changing dynamic in this country,” Patel said to Trump, who patted him on the back.
In the 1,052-word manifesto, Allen wrote to his family members that as a “citizen of the United States of America” he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
He then said he was attempting to minimalize casualities, only targeting Secret Service agents “if necessary” and not targeting other law enforcement and security “unless they shoot at me.”
Guests and employees, he said, were not targets at all.
“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Allen wrote.
Allen, who has not been officially identified by authorities, is believed to have traveled by train from his home state of California, where he lives in the Los Angeles area and works as a teacher, to D.C.
The Caltech graduate describes himself on LinkedIn as a ”mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth."
Allen’s sister told law enforcement that he brother “had a tendency to make radical statements and his rhetoric constantly referenced a plan to do ‘something’ to fix the issues with today’s world,” a White House source told NPR.
Jeff Carroll, interim chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, handgun, and multiple knives. Allen will be charged with one count each of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
