Cole Allen wrote a manifesto ranking Trump officials by importance so he could assassinate them in order.
Now a federal judge has apologized to him for his jail conditions.
The same judge compared Allen's treatment to January 6 defendants – and used it to argue the alleged assassin deserves better.
The Judge Who Thinks an Alleged Assassin Has Been Mistreated
Allen, 31, didn't just show up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner with firearms and knives.
He spent weeks planning it.
He reserved a room at the venue nearly a month out, monitored the president's movements the night of the attack, and sent his family a manifesto before he walked in.
That manifesto laid out his targets – Trump administration officials "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest" – and explained that hotel guests weren't his intended victims, though he'd go through them if necessary.
He also told investigators he didn't expect to survive the attack.
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2050770319887982892?s=20
That last detail is why jail staff placed Allen on suicide watch when he entered federal custody – 24-hour lockdown, padded cell, no phone access, no Bible despite repeated requests.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, appointed to the DC bench in September 2020, wasn't buying it.
He said he was "fascinated and disturbed" by Allen's treatment.
He ordered an emergency hearing on a motion Allen's own attorneys had already withdrawn.
Then he reached for January 6.
"To me, it's extremely disturbing that he was put in five-point restraints, a person with no criminal history," Faruqui said. "I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell."
He used the Capitol riot defendants as the floor for how leniently an alleged presidential assassin should be treated.
Jeanine Pirro Said What Everyone Was Thinking
Faruqui didn't stop at complaints.
He addressed Allen directly from the bench.
"Mr. Allen, I'm sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to be,” he said.
He told Allen to demand legal visits.
He promised to deliver a Bible.
He ordered Allen moved to a medium-security wing with windows by Tuesday morning.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro had a response.
"Welcome to Washington, DC," Pirro wrote on X, "where US Magistrate Judge Faruqui believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant."
That about covers it.
https://twitter.com/JudgeJeanine/status/2051399246776021500?s=20
Prosecutors had a straightforward reason for the suicide watch: Allen told FBI agents after his arrest that he hadn't expected to make it out alive.
Faruqui decided that reflected an expectation of being shot by law enforcement – not suicidal intent – overruled them, and held the emergency hearing anyway.
This Is What the Two-Tiered Justice System Actually Looks Like
This is not the first time Faruqui has made life difficult for Trump's Justice Department.
He has been one of the most vocal DC magistrates pushing back against Trump's law enforcement priorities since 2025 – writing last year that trust in the government, built over generations, had collapsed in a matter of weeks.
And he's the judge who oversaw hundreds of January 6 cases.
He watched many of those defendants sit in restrictive housing for months – conditions bad enough that Democrat senators Warren and Durbin publicly objected in 2021.
He used that experience today to argue that a man who allegedly charged a security checkpoint with a loaded firearm to take out the president has been treated too harshly.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2049977155451564425?s=20
The Left spent four years calling January 6 defendants domestic terrorists who deserved every hardship they got.
Now the judge who presided over their cases is using them as proof that an alleged Trump assassin has it too rough.
The men who were prosecuted for walking through the Capitol are now the benchmark for how gently we should treat someone who ranked cabinet officials by assassination priority.
Cole Allen faces a preliminary hearing on May 11.
The jail has until Tuesday morning to satisfy the judge who just apologized to the man who wanted to take out the President.
Sources:
- Peter D'Abrosca and Jake Gibson, "Judge apologizes to alleged would-be Trump assassin, drags Jan 6 suspects into rant over jail complaints," Fox News, May 4, 2026.
- "DC Judge Apologizes To Accused Would-Be Trump Assassin Over Treatment In Jail," The Daily Caller, May 4, 2026.
- "Judge rants that Jan. 6 inmates treated better than press dinner gunman," Washington Examiner, May 4, 2026.
- "Pirro rips judge in Trump attack case for apologizing to Cole Allen over jail conditions," CNBC, May 4, 2026.
