Ask Jordan: How can Cole Tomas Allen be charged with attempted assassination?

“Why is Cole Tomas Allen being charged with attempting to assassinate the president when he was nowhere near Donald Trump and not even in the same room as Trump or the other attendees?” – VB

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Hi VB,

Allen’s lawyers might make that argument, but it won’t necessarily succeed. The defendant is presumed innocent, and it’s the government’s burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. But the allegations, if proved, could support the serious charge of attempted assassination.

Let’s consider two other examples of attempted assassination cases in thinking about this: the one in which Ryan Routh was convicted of trying to kill Trump when he was a candidate in 2024, and one from decades ago in which a man named Francisco Duran was convicted of trying to kill then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Prosecutors summarized Routh’s actions like this in their sentencing memorandum:

The Defendant plotted painstakingly to kill President Trump, and took significant steps toward making that happen, culminating on September 15, 2024 at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, when he sat in a sniper hide that he had carefully constructed, chambered a round in the military-grade SKS rifle that he possessed illegally, and pointed it toward President Trump and his protective detail. Routh was only thwarted in his assassination attempt by a Secret Service agent who noticed and disrupted Routh before Routh could fire a shot.

So even though Routh didn’t fire a shot at Trump, that didn’t stop him from being convicted of attempted assassination.

The jury instructions in Routh’s case said jurors needed to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he intended to kill a major presidential candidate and that his intent was strongly corroborated by taking a “substantial step” toward doing so. The instructions described such a step as “an important action leading up to committing a crime” that must be “more than preparation.” Routh was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison earlier this year. He has filed a notice of appeal.

Duran’s case presented a different factual scenario but also led to a conviction. He traveled from Colorado to Washington, D.C., and brought guns and ammunition with him. He went to the White House, and although Clinton wasn’t outside, someone who looked like him was. Duran fired at that other man while standing on the sidewalk in front of the White House.

After he was convicted, Duran argued on appeal that his attempted assassination conviction should be reversed because he had not actually shot at the president. But in ruling against him, Washington’s federal appeals court deemed that distinction irrelevant, citing “the overwhelming evidence that, in the days and hours before the shooting, he engaged in numerous ‘substantial steps’ towards his objective of assassinating the President.”

So, while every case has its own unique fact pattern, the takeaway here is that prosecutors can secure convictions even when defendants don’t get face-to-face with their targets or fire at them specifically.

Likewise, if the Allen case were to go to trial, the focus would be not only on what happened in the moments leading up to his apprehension, but also on what happened in the days and hours prior. Stay mindful that these initial charges are backed by the government’s narrative, which contains multiple pieces of evidence that can bolster a charge of attempted assassination.