Man charged in White House correspondents' dinner attack pleads not guilty

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of storming the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner while armed with guns and knives pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he attempted to kill President Donald Trump and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer who tried to stop the attack.

Cole Tomas Allen was handcuffed and shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform when he appeared in federal court for his arraignment. Allen didn’t speak during the brief hearing. One of his attorneys entered the plea on his behalf.

Allen’s lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to disqualify at least two top Justice Department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the event when Allen ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer, authorities said. In a court filing last week, Allen’s attorneys argued that it creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.

McFadden, a Trump nominee, didn’t rule from the bench on that question but asked Allen’s attorneys to elaborate on the possible scope of their recusal request. Defense attorney Eugene Ohm said the defense likely would seek to disqualify Pirro’s entire office from involvement in the case. Ohm acknowledged that a bid to disqualify the entire Justice Department would be unlikely.

“That would be quite a request,” the judge said.

McFadden gave prosecutors until May 22 to respond in writing to the defense's request. The judge asked the government to specify whether it believes Pirro and Blanche could be considered victims in the case.

“That might add some clarity here,” McFadden said.

In their filing, Allen's attorneys suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted.

Allen is scheduled to return to court on June 29.

A Secret Service officer was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest during the April 25 attack at the Washington Hilton hotel, which disrupted and ultimately prompted an early end to one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital. The officer fired five shots but didn't hit anybody, authorities said.

Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was injured but was not shot.

Besides the attempted-assassination count, Allen also is charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge alone.

Allen was placed on suicide watch after his arrest, but jail officials removed him from that status after several days. Allen’s attorneys complained that he had been unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip searched and placed in restraints outside his cell.

Allen told FBI agents that he didn’t expect to survive the attack, which could help explain why he was deemed to be a possible suicide risk, a Justice Department prosecutor has said.

Allen was outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife when he took a photo of himself in his room at the hotel just minutes before the attack, according to prosecutors. In a message that authorities say sheds light on his motive, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and alluded obliquely to grievances over a range of actions by Trump's Republican administration.

Authorities have alleged that Allen on April 6 reserved a room for himself at the Hilton where the event would be held weeks later under its typical tight security. He traveled by train cross-country from California, checking himself into the hotel a day before the dinner with a room reserved for the weekend.

Trump was rushed off the stage by his security team at the Saturday night event and appeared at the White House two hours later, still in his tuxedo, to talk about the attack and the suspect.

“When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” the president said. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”

This courtroom sketch depicts Cole Tomas Allen, seated center, the California man arrested in the shooting incident at the correspondents dinner in Washington, seen appearing before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya, in federal court, Thursday, April 30, 2026 in Washington. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

FILE - U.S. Secret Service agents respond near President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Secret service agents respond when a man, who authorities say, tried to storm the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives, in Washington, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)

This courtroom sketch depicts Cole Tomas Allen, center, listening as his attorney Eugene Ohm, left, speaks to U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Washington, as Tony Towns, the acting general counsel for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, listens at right. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows Cole Tomas Allen, left, inside his hotel room, on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington, using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror. An enhanced version of the image is right. (Department of Justice via AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Nations around the world on Monday repatriated passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and quarantined or isolated them, including a French woman and an American who tested positive.

Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that continued Monday.

Three cruise ship passengers have died, and there are at least six confirmed hantavirus cases, according to the World Health Organization. The lab results of the American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday.

Health authorities say the risk to the broader public is low from the first-ever hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.

The ship's captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message Monday praising passengers and crew for their perseverance and calling for respect for their privacy.

“I’ve witnessed your caring, your unity and quiet strength amongst everybody on board — guests and crew alike — and I must commend my crew for the courage and the selfless resolve that they showed time and again in the most difficult moments,” he said. “I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike.”

The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. The woman was among five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.

One of 18 passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.

After landing in Nebraska early Monday, the American passengers were being taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility. Once there, they were being assessed to determine whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.

“The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network that will help care for the passengers.

The university medical center also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.

The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was due to wrap up on Monday.

A Dutch plane expected to reach Tenerife Monday afternoon will carry passengers that were previously going to be evacuated on a plane sent by Australia, Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said. On Monday, 54 passengers and crew remained on the ship, of which 22 were expected to disembark, while the remaining 32 will remain on the ship as it returns to the Netherlands.

South African health authorities said on Monday that the condition of a British man admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg and being treated for hantavirus was gradually improving. He was evacuated from the ship on April 27 after becoming ill.

The Hondius left the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia on April 1 and a Dutch passenger died on board April 11. It wasn’t until early May that the World Health Organization said it was reacting to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which by that time was off the West African island nation of Cape Verde.

Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”

WHO is recommending that passengers’ home countries “have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

Numerous countries have said their people will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation.

The ship's captain, Dobrogowski, said his thoughts “are with the ones that are no longer with us, and whatever I say will not ease this loss, but I’d like you to know that they are with us every day in our hearts and our thoughts.”

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed reporting.

Nebraska Medicine's Davis Global Center is seen on Sunday, May 10,2026 in Omaha, Neb. where American passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will quarantine. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)

Passengers leave a plane at Manchester Airport, after being repatriated to the United Kingdom from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by hantavirus, Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Manchester, England. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

Passengers are sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

Ambulances carrying patients evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, leave the Bourget airport, north of Paris, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A plane carrying patients evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, lands at the Bourget airport, north of Paris, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)