A California man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner is mounting a bold legal challenge: he wants the acting attorney general and a top federal prosecutor removed from his case because they were present when shots rang out.
Cole Tomas Allen's defense team argues that Todd Blanche and Jeanine Pirro cannot fairly prosecute him since they were both at the Washington Hilton on April 25 when Allen allegedly breached a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer. The attorneys contend this creates an appearance of conflict of interest, if not an actual one.
In a filing Thursday, Allen's lawyers Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe posed a rhetorical challenge to the justice system. "How can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?" they wrote. The two assistant federal public defenders are pushing US District Judge Trevor McFadden to disqualify both officials and possibly others from any prosecutorial role in the case.
The filing describes what both Blanche and Pirro experienced that evening. "Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants," the defense wrote. "They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learn that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials."
The defense team has suggested that a special prosecutor may be necessary to handle the case. Blanche and Pirro's personal connections to Donald Trump add another layer to the controversy. Pirro has long been close to Trump, while Blanche served as a personal attorney for him before joining the justice department last year.
Pirro's office signaled it will fight back. "We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence, and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law," Pirro said in a statement. She indicated her office would file its own response to the defense motion. Blanche declined direct comment and deferred to Pirro's office.
Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, was hit with serious charges this week after a grand jury returned an indictment that includes attempting to assassinate Trump. He also faces counts for assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms violations. He is scheduled for arraignment Monday.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is a textbook conflict of interest wrapped in the messiest possible political package, and the judge will have to decide whether the optics matter as much as the law does."
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