Judge blasts Cole Allen treatment by jail in Trump case

An irritated federal judge on Monday said it appeared that Cole Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, has been treated more harshly by a jail than it treated defendants in Jan. 6, 2021, attack criminal cases.

“I can tell you I have never had a January 6th defendant who was put in 5-point restraints or a safe cell,” Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told prosecutors during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Faruqui said he found it “extremely disturbing” and was “very troubled” that the 31-year-old Allen had been placed under suicide watch and had restrictions imposed without a finding that he was at risk for suicide and without having a criminal history.

“A lot of people have seemed to forget about Jan. 6, but I have not,” Faruqui said. “Pardons erase convictions but do not erase history.”

Allen’s lawyer Eugene Jeen-Young Kim Ohm said officials at the D.C. jail placed Allen in a safe, padded cell, in essentially a 24-hour lockdown, with constant lighting.

Allen was told he could not make a legal call over the weekend, was not able to have paperwork or legal work in his room and was denied a Bible that he had requested, the attorney told Faruqui.

“It just doesn’t add up,” Faruqui said, asking how the D.C. jail houses people who have been found guilty and have less restrictive conditions than Allen, who is being held without bond.

“It’s a high-profile case,” the judge said. “I don’t live under a rock …. He should not be in solitary confinement.”

“If that’s what is going to happen, I want to know that, and I want to know why,” Faruqui said.

The judge ordered prosecutors to send him an email by Tuesday morning informing him when a final decision on where Allen will be detained.

Allen’s lawyers over the weekend asked that he be removed from suicide precautions, calling them punitive. They dropped that request after being told the precautions were lifted, but the judge said a hearing on the issue would proceed Monday, saying he had serious questions about Allen’s treatment.

The Torrance, California, resident was tackled by Secret Service officers on April 25 after running through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel, a floor above the ballroom where Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top Trump administration officials were dining with hundreds of journalists.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said over the weekend that Allen fired the shotgun he was carrying at a Secret Service officer, whose protective vest blocked the shot from seriously injuring him.

— MS NOW’s Nora McKee contributed to this article.