What Are the Charges Against Alleged Correspondents’ Dinner Shooter?

Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.

Allen appeared at a brief preliminary hearing Monday, where Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh announced that he’d been charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines, and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

The charge for the firearm offense carries a minimum sentence of 10 years, and the transportation charge carries a maximum of 10 years, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney on X.

Meanwhile, attempting to assassinate the president carries a potential life sentence. In February, Ryan Routh received life in prison after he was convicted of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at the president’s eponymous golf club in Palm Beach.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine argued that Allen should be recommended for pretrial detention.

“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States. We are asking the court to preventatively detain Mr. Allen. He’s charged with a federal crime of terrorism, which mandates detention,” she said, according to Scott MacFarlane on X.

It’s not clear, however, that Allen is facing a terrorism charge. Federal prosecutors may choose to charge Allen with terrorism if they believe his attempted act of violence was an effort to affect policy.

Allen has accepted the services of two veteran public defenders, Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm, Politico reported.

This story has been updated.

The U.S. Mint claims to be a symbol of the founding principles of America, its gold coins a product of the country’s personal success. But that’s not exactly true.

Instead, the U.S. Mint’s gold program is the amalgamation of several illicit sources, effectively serving as the final laundering point for foreign powers and cartels before the precious metal is clean and ready for sale on the international market.

An investigation by The New York Times, published Sunday, followed the money from its origins in dangerous and unlawful mines to American-based refineries as far north as West Point.

The Mint is the biggest name in the global gold coin market. Its profits are a boon to the U.S. Treasury that help to cover various government expenses.

In 1985, Congress banned the agency from making bullion out of foreign gold, an explicit attempt to distance the moneymaking institution from human rights abuses abroad. As a result, purchasing gold from the Mint is supposed to come with a vote of confidence, a promise that the bad actors of the world are not profiting from or exploiting the process.

But the Mint has blatantly and repeatedly violated that law since its implementation, regardless of which party is in charge of Washington. In doing so, it has allowed even some of the country’s most ardent adversaries to pocket cash from American operations.

Gold has become one of the most valuable commodities in the market. An ounce of gold in 1985 was worth, on average, $317, according to a gold tracker hosted by SD Bullion. Today, that same ounce is worth $4,688, nearly five times the value when adjusted for inflation.

The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold from the far corners of the globe, including a mine in Colombia run by Clan del Golfo, a violent cartel blacklisted by the Treasury Department that traffics in gold alongside cocaine, as well as a Congolese mine that is partly owned by the Chinese government. Even terrorist groups linked to Al Qaeda have gotten into the American gold trade.

With the money they make, the various entities affiliated with the trade are able to wage war, sustain autocracies, and commit murder. Gold mining has funded Sudan’s civil war, which has so far displaced more than 14 million people, and bankrolled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The trade has bolstered Venezuela and Iran, helping the countries overstep economic sanctions.

Locally, the mining has produced toxic results. Many of the mines are just as bad for the environment as they are for the people running them: Portions of the Amazon rainforest have been indiscriminately deforested and polluted in order to make way for the mines. Where gold is found in mud, workers mix in mercury by hand, hoping to bind the metals together. In doing so, they poison themselves and the local ecosystems.

When first approached by the Times, a spokesperson for the Mint said that the agency’s gold came entirely from the U.S. But when confronted by the paper’s findings, the spokesperson changed their tune, claiming instead that the U.S. was the Mint’s “primary” source for gold and that it was taking steps to better track the trade.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose department oversees the Mint, told the Times that he would open an investigation into the matter.

“This review is focused on ensuring that the U.S. Mint’s gold suppliers comply with the law and strictly satisfy their obligations, and that the Mint takes every step possible to continue to vigorously safeguard our national security and uphold market integrity,” Bessent said in a written statement.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis released his new proposed congressional map Monday that aims to grab four more Republican seats in the House of Representatives.

DeSantis told Fox News that “Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since.

“Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited,” DeSantis added, without mentioning that his office also drew the state’s congressional maps in 2022 after the census.

The state House and Senate now have to approve the new map, which would then go to DeSantis’s desk to be signed into law and take effect for November’s midterm elections. If it is passed, the hope is that Republicans would increase their 20–8 congressional seat advantage to 24–4.

The Democrats most at risk by this proposal are Representatives Kathy Castor, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But as Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman pointed out, redrawing Castor’s district will risk neighboring Republicans in Tampa Bay, who will suddenly have new Democratic constituents.

DeSantis, just as in 2022, is attempting to get around Florida’s Constitution, which bans legislators from drawing districts with “the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.” He’s trying to claim executive privilege, make the process as opaque as possible to frustrate legal challenges, and then run out the clock on those challenges.

If successful, Republicans hope that their nationwide redistricting will beat out efforts in Democratic-run states like California and Virginia and ultimately stem a backlash against Trump and the GOP this November. But eliminating four safe Democratic seats to create unsafe Republican seats could easily backfire and make the whole effort moot.

President Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed the idea of changing “ICE” agents into “NICE” agents, in another lame effort to own the libs as his presidency continues to implode.

Last month, Alyssa Marie, a former “journalist” with Project Veritas, the far-right organization known for its hidden-camera stings, pitched a dystopian rebrand for the federal agents charged with carrying out the president’s mass deportation scheme.

“I want Trump to change ICE to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement) so the media has to say NICE agents all day everyday,” she wrote on X.

More than a month later, the president responded enthusiastically to the idea. “GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT,” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

MAGA accounts on social media were instantly whipped into a frenzy as they discussed how satisfying it would be to watch the president’s critics melt down because they had to refer to “NICE” agents. While Trump may know how to fire up his own base, it seems that Americans aren’t really interested in an administration whose singular goal is to own the libs.

As of last week, Trump’s approval rating has sunk to less than 40 percent. Some polls have seen him shrink to a second-term low, while others have seen him at the lowest depths of either term in office. While Trump’s latest dive bomb is a direct result of his reckless military campaign in Iran, ICE’s lawless actions are playing no small part in the president’s slow fall from grace.

American voters have borne witness to ICE agents’ use of threats and intimidation, excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. ICE has detained hundreds of children, and families of mixed legal status are being regularly torn apart by the administration’s relentless immigration crackdown. Federal immigration agents were also responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

But sure. Call them “NICE.” It won’t get you reelected.

The White House is already using Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to try and get a lawsuit against President Trump’s ballroom dropped.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a letter on X Sunday night to lawyers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is suing to stop the ballroom’s construction. The letter demands the organization dismiss its “frivolous lawsuit,” claiming the shooting proved the necessity of the ballroom as a “safe space.”

“Yesterday’s assassination attempt on President Trump proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff,” the letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, states.

“Put simply, your lawsuit helps put the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk. I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter the cost,” the letter added.

Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning about how “what happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE.”

It’s almost astonishing at how quickly the administration came up with this excuse for the ballroom, trivializing an actual assassination attempt on the president and top Cabinet officials. Just hours after the shooting, some of the president’s most fervent MAGA supporters were posting about the need for a ballroom for the safety of the president and the first family, giving fodder to conspiracy theorists.

Their argument is hollow: This wasn’t a White House event, and thus, wouldn’t have been held at the White House—so no ballroom would have helped him. Moreover, the president is going to have to leave the White House grounds for events, and shouldn’t be hiding from interacting with the American people in a gilded ballroom. The idea that this bloated, ethically compromised monstrosity on the White House grounds is somehow necessary for safety reasons is a joke.