DOJ press briefing — WHCD shooting update

AAG Blanche

good afternoon, everybody. thanks for being here.

AAG Blanche

on saturday night, as you all know, an act of violence occurred at a gathering that symbolizes something fundamental to our system of government, the ability of a free press and public officials to come together in celebration and not fear.

AAG Blanche

i want to make this clear. this man was a floor above the ballroom with hundreds of federal agents between him and the president of the united states.

AAG Blanche

today, the department of justice filed three federal charges in united states district court against cole tomas allen.

AAG Blanche

just to go through very quickly the timeline, which many of you in this room already know, the defendant, allen, made a hotel reservation at the washington hilton for april 24th through april 26th.

AAG Blanche

i want to thank everybody who worked tirelessly on saturday, sunday, and continuing today.

USA Pirro

cole allen's journey of accountability in the criminal justice system starts today.

USA Pirro

but make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the united states with the defendant making clear what his intent was.

USA Pirro

now, the facts make it very clear what this intent was. you may recall that it was on march 2nd that the president indicated that he would be attending this public event at the hilton.

USA Pirro

now, as indicated, these are the weapons that the defendant had on his person. you can see that's a 12 gauge pump action mossberg shotgun.

USA Pirro

now, the manifesto also makes clear about his expected rules of engagement.

USA Pirro

washington dc is not the place to travel to commit acts of violence.

Dir. Patel

this one hits a little differently. we were all there. many of you were there. many of you watching were there as well.

Dir. Patel

this fbi is grateful to the united states secret service, the department of homeland security, and our inter-agency partners.

Dir. Patel

also on scene, you were told about the brave heroics of the united states secret service and other members of law enforcement.

Dir. Patel

the fbi, along with standing up mobile command units, evidence tech response team and washington swat on scene also established our nc3.

Dir. Patel

back at the headquarters division and the washington field office, we were coordinating a national scale investigation that literally spanned from coast to coast.

Dir. Patel

again, we ask everybody who has any relevant information, like i did on saturday night with the president, 1-800, call fbi.

Dir. Patel

america should be proud that this fbi acted with the urgency that was needed for the moment that we had to answer.

Dir. Patel

each and every one of them deserves our thanks, and i encourage everyone listening to go out there and shake the hand of a federal agent or police officer.

Dir. Patel

i know the public has a yearning for information, but just remind yourself of how much information you have already received, how transparent this administration has been.

reporter

beyond the evidence and what the judge described as the manifesto, what other evidence can you point to that tells us that the president was the primary target of the suspect?

AAG Blanche

so we're a day and a half into the investigation. as we talked about earlier, we were able to get multiple devices from various locations.

reporter

beyond the assassination attempts against president trump, you had someone try to burn down the mansion with the governor leaders in pennsylvania.

AAG Blanche

well, you just described the current threat environment pretty accurately, which is that the political violence and rhetoric has got to stop.

AAG Blanche

we want to get that right. so we're still looking at that. it appears, and i don't want to overstate, because we are still looking at this, that there were five shots that law enforcement fired.

AAG Blanche

well, we filed a motion today asking the court to do what the plaintiffs refused to do.

AAG Blanche

yes. well, of course we're investigating that.

AAG Blanche

i have read reports in the news and i've read reports that say various things regarding his views of christianity.

Dir. Patel

as to the latter, no. as to the former, the fbi and the inter-agency is constantly evaluating intelligence provided to us.

AAG Blanche

the complaint lays out what i think is described as a manifesto, which is something that he's allegedly sent to many folks.