The attack against Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner adds a new key piece: security camera footage. The video released by US prosecutor Jeanine Pirro shows how the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, began his offensive at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event was being held, attended by the President of the United States, the First Lady, high-ranking Administration officials, and hundreds of guests. Reuters has published the video with the sequence of the attack's beginning.
The recording arrives at a delicate moment for the investigation. In recent days, doubts had arisen about how a Secret Service agent was injured during the incident and whether he could have been hit by friendly fire. Trump and the director of the Secret Service, Sean Curran, have rejected that version: they maintain that the agent was not injured by shots from his colleagues, but by the suspect.
Images show suspect at security checkpoint
The security video focuses on the access area to the event. According to Reuters, the images released by Pirro show how Cole Tomas Allen started the attack at the Correspondents' Dinner. The suspect appears in the security checkpoint area of the Washington Hilton, the point that separated the lobby from the area where Trump, Melania Trump, and other high-ranking officials were.
The sequence is important because it helps reconstruct the initial seconds of the attack: the moment Allen crosses or attempts to cross the security perimeter, the agents' reaction, and the rapid closure of access to the main hall. It is there that a central part of the investigation is now concentrated: how he managed to get armed to that point and how the device acted before subduing him.
Trump and the Secret Service deny friendly fire
The most relevant update is not only in the video, but in the clarification about the injured agent. Trump declared from the Oval Office that the agent was not hit by friendly fire. “It wasn’t us,” the president said when asked about reports pointing to that possibility, according to Reuters.
The director of the Secret Service, Sean Curran, was more precise in an interview on Fox News. He assured that the agent received a shot "at point-blank range" from the suspect while Allen was running through security control. Curran added that the agent responded by firing five times, although he did not hit the suspect.
The suspect was not hit by the agent's shots
According to the version offered by Curran, Cole Tomas Allen did not fall because he had been injured by the agent's shots, but because he hit his knee. He was then subdued by other federal agents near the top of the stairs leading to the hall where the dinner was being held.
That detail matters because it corrects one of the most confusing areas of the case. In the early hours, the chaos of the attack, the shootings, and the evacuation of the president fueled several versions about who had shot, who had been hit, and at what exact moment the agent's injury occurred.
What the court documents say
The controversy was also fueled by the judicial documentation presented by the prosecutors. Reuters points out that the papers filed on Wednesday did not describe exactly the same sequence that Curran later defended. The documents mentioned that an agent fired five times, but did not detail that this agent had been hit by the suspect.
Nor did they accuse Allen in that document of having aimed or fired directly at the agent. That lack of precision opened up space for doubts and information suggesting the possibility of friendly fire. Now, both Trump and the head of the Secret Service have tried to close that avenue with a clearer version: the shot that wounded the agent would have come from the suspect's weapon.
Cole Tomas Allen, accused of attempting to assassinate Trump
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was arrested after the attack at the Washington Hilton. Prosecutors maintain that he attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, one of the most symbolic events on Washington's political and media calendar. Reuters already reported that Allen was formally charged with attempting to assassinate the president and could face life in prison if convicted.
The suspect also faces weapons-related charges. According to the Associated Press, prosecutors released new images of the attack and maintain that Allen burst armed into the event, shot at a Secret Service agent, and was subdued before reaching the main hall.
The key question: how did he get armed to the hotel
The new video reinforces an uncomfortable question for the security detail: how could the suspect approach the armed checkpoint during a dinner with the president, the first lady, high-ranking government officials, and a large part of the US political and media elite.
Curran has defended the operation. In the interview cited by Reuters, he assured that the place was "perfectly" prepared and that he would not change the design of the device. It is an important defense because the attack has reopened the debate on presidential security and on the protocols applied in events held outside the White House.
Trump jokes about bulletproof vest
The episode also left a very Trump-like response. Asked if he would start wearing a bulletproof vest, the president did not seem particularly convinced. He said he didn't know if he could stand to see himself "20 pounds heavier" and added that, although it was something that could be considered, he didn't like it because it would mean "giving in" to a violent element.
The attack on the Washington Hilton is the third major episode of armed threat against Trump since 2024 and once again places presidential security at the center of the American political debate.