Accused WHCD shooter seeks to disqualify Pirro, Blanche because they attended event
Source: CBS News, via WTOP
Accused WHCD shooter seeks to disqualify Pirro, Blanche because they attended event
CBS News
May 7, 2026, 10:52 PM
Attorneys for accused White House Correspondents Dinner shooter Cole Allen asked a judge Thursday night to disqualify U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro and other senior Justice Department leaders from the case because they were present during the incident.
In the motion, his lawyers led with a quote from FBI Director Kash Patel, who appeared at a press conference two days after the shooting to discuss the case alongside acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Pirro. ... This one hits a little differently. We were all there, the motion quotes Patel as saying.
Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two gun counts. He has not yet entered a plea.
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Read more: https://wtop.com/local/2026/05/accused-whcd-shooter-seeks-to-disqualify-pirro-blanche-because-they-attended-event/
idahoblue
(456 posts)I was disqualified to serve on the jury of a shooter because I cared for one of his victims in the ED.
MichMan
(17,366 posts)maxsolomon
(39,114 posts)He's still fucked.
ck4829
(38,064 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(181,713 posts)You can NOT prosecute a case where you are witness or potential witness. Not recusing is a stupid move.
Trump DOJ made a 'huge mistake' after violating 'bedrock rule' in major case: legal expert
— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-05-09T16:19:50.773Z
https://www.rawstory.com/cole-tomas-allen-department-of-justice/
White House Correspondents Association dinner shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that include attempting to assassinate the 79-year-old president at the Washington Hilton, and CNN's Elie Honig expressed surprise that Attorney General Todd Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, were remaining on the case.
"The right and easy thing for prosecutors to do here for Todd Blanche and Jeanine Pirro is to recuse themselves," Honig said. "It's not punishment, it doesn't mean they've done anything wrong. It's simply a bedrock principle of prosecutorial ethics that if you are a potential witness or a potential victim, you're going to have a conflict of interest, or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest, and so the safe thing to do is to pull yourself off the case."....
Honig criticized Judge Trevor McFadden at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for his handling of the matter.
"I think the judge is wrong today when he says, well, they didn't see anything, the shooter never made it into the ballroom, hence they're not witnesses or they're not victims," Honig said. "First of all, they heard gunshots, they've confirmed through a witness, and with respect to the claim [that] they're not victims, Jeanine Pirro herself said in an interview on May 2 to Fox News, she said, quote, 'I was in the line of fire, I could have been killed.' So sounds like at least a potential victim to me."