Kash Patel and Todd Blanche Hold a Joint DOJ Press Conference - 04/27/26

[16:24] good afternoon everybody thanks for being here on saturday night as you all know an act of violence [16:33] occurred at a gathering that symbolizes something fundamental to our system of government the [16:39] ability of a free press and public officials to come together in celebration and not fear [16:45] the act was stopped because of the courage and excuse me that act that horrible act was stopped [16:51] because of the courage and professionalism of law enforcement the officers who responded [16:58] without hesitation and did their jobs as they were trained to do secret service agents promptly [17:05] tackled and detained the suspect cole thomas allen the president and all the protectees [17:13] and participants at the dinner were safe one brave officer was injured and is receiving care and has [17:22] been released from the hospital i want to make this clear this man was a floor above the ballroom with [17:33] hundreds of federal agents between him and the president of the united states the department [17:41] of justice approaches incidents like this with urgency and clarity of purpose violence has no place in [17:50] civic life it cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who [17:58] serve them and it certainly cannot continue to be used against the president of the united states we are [18:05] investigating this matter fully we will apply the law fairly and we will ensure that accountability is [18:12] swift and certain but we also should recognize what did not happen law enforcement did not fail they did [18:22] exactly what they are trained to do this was not an accident it was the result as we know now of [18:29] preparation but the men and women who protected us that night were trained professional and had an enduring [18:38] commitment to the rule of law today the department of justice filed three federal charges in united [18:46] states district court against cole thomas allen the first count is attempted assassination of the [18:52] president of the united states this count is punishable by up to life in prison the second count is [19:00] interstate transportation of a firearm to commit a felony this is punishable by up to 10 years in prison [19:06] and the third count is discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence which is punishable by a [19:12] mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years a maximum of life and the 10 years is consecutive [19:19] to any other sentence imposed just to go through very quickly the timeline which many of you in this room [19:28] already know the defendant allen made a hotel reservation at the washington hilton for april 24th through april 26th [19:39] on april 21st of this year he traveled by train from los angeles to chicago and then from chicago to [19:47] washington dc on april 24th he arrived in washington dc at approximately one o'clock in the afternoon [19:56] and checked into the washington hilton approximately at 8 40 on the night of april 25th allen approached the [20:05] security checkpoint on the terrace level of the hotel which is again a floor above where the dinner was taking [20:11] place he ran through the magnometer holding a long gun as he did so u.s secret service personnel assigned [20:19] to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot one secret office secret service officer was shot in the chest [20:26] but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked this heroic officer who was hit fired five times at allen [20:35] who was not shot but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested i want to thank everybody who [20:44] worked tirelessly on saturday sunday and continuing today this includes members of the fbi and director [20:51] patel is going to address that in a minute it includes members of the metropolitan police department [20:57] who were immediately on the scene the chief the mayor to make sure that law enforcement was [21:02] available to do their jobs and had had all the tools they needed to do so and lastly the united [21:08] states attorney's office here in dc our u.s attorney janine pirro and her team a prosecutor [21:14] stayed up all night long didn't sleep all day yesterday making sure that we got what we needed from [21:20] all over the country it included search warrants in california search warrants here in dc [21:26] multiple interviews that have been conducted already of witnesses and of of family members of of the [21:31] police department who was a charged individual and and continue to work hard today this investigation [21:37] is ongoing it's not complete a lot of the information that that the media is hearing through [21:43] leaks or sources some of it is true some of it is not true and at the right time you will hear [21:49] information from us as appropriate i'd like to ask our u.s attorney janine pirro to say a few words and [21:55] then followed by director patel thank you thank you mr attorney general cole allen's [22:07] journey of accountability in the criminal justice system starts today todd blanche just indicated to [22:14] you the charges those charges are only three charges that are in the complaint that has been presented [22:22] in federal district court about an hour ago there will be additional charges as this investigation [22:28] continues to unfold but make no mistake this was an attempted assassination of the president [22:37] of the united states with the defendant making clear what his intent was and that intent [22:43] was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could this is the kind of [22:52] situation that we cannot tolerate and as the attorney general has just indicated it could have been so much [22:59] worse but for the reality that we had the secret service as well as the metropolitan police department [23:08] and the fbi now the facts make it very clear what this intent was you may recall that it was on march [23:17] 2nd that the president indicated that he would be attending this public event at the at the hilton [23:24] and on april 6th that's when cole allen first made a hotel reservation at the washington hilton for [23:33] three nights the 24th the 25th and the 26th it was on april 21st that he traveled all the way from the west coast [23:43] from home from his home near la he gets to chicago on april 23rd and has been indicated he arrives in d.c [23:53] on the 24th and he checks into the hotel at about 3 p.m he stays overnight he is very much aware [24:04] that the president and the first lady entered the ballroom at 8 p.m and it was at 8 40 that he made [24:12] a decision to rush the ballroom and thank goodness law enforcement the secret service was able to [24:20] prevent him from getting into that ballroom he was not injured other than some kind of scrape on his knee [24:28] now as indicated these are the weapons that the defendant had on his person you can see that's [24:36] a 12-gauge pub action mossberg shotgun it's a 38 semi-automatic he had at least three knives and all [24:43] kinds of paraphernalia so any any suggestion that he wasn't there to do harm is absurd we will prove [24:53] when he purchased these guns they were purchased in california why is that relevant it is relevant [25:01] because he crossed interstate lines with those firearms and those are the firearms that he used [25:08] on the night of the 25th or attempted to use at the very least now the manifesto also makes clear [25:15] about his expected rules of engagement you know you can look at it and read it and it may seem kind of [25:22] la la la but at the end make no mistake he says i am targeting the administration officials they are my [25:30] targets and i'm prioritizing from the top down the highest ranking from the lowest and i will not [25:37] hesitate to get involved in any kind of encounter with anyone who blocks me from the president now [25:46] finally let me say one thing within days of the president nominating me to be the united states [25:52] attorney for the district of columbia i was at the scene of a double homicide where one elias rodriguez [25:59] crossed state lines from chicago with a firearm to commit a felony in the district he's now indicted [26:06] for the murder of two individuals laran lashinsky and sarah milgram here in washington not long after [26:13] that another individual ramanala lock and wall crossed state lines again with a firearm with intent to [26:21] commit a felony here in washington he traveled from the state of washington he is now indicted with the [26:28] murder of sarah beckstrom national guardsman and the attempted murder of national guard andrew wolf [26:35] today we have cole allen another individual charged with crossing state lines coming from california [26:42] with a firearm with the intent to commit a felony here in the district let this be a message to anyone [26:50] who thinks that washington dc is the place to act out political violence and if you are willing to [26:57] do so with a firearm and cross state lines we will find you we will track your steps from the inception [27:04] of your plan and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law washington dc is not the [27:11] place to travel to commit acts of violence the constitution and the laws of the united states permit us [27:18] to register our views through our voices and our votes what they don't permit is making your views [27:25] known through violence especially violence directed at the president of the united states this is [27:31] anti-democratic at its core thank you judge excuse me thank you general this one hits a little [27:44] differently we were all there many of you were there many of you watching were there as well the [27:51] president was there the vice president was there the cabinet was there and what you saw described [27:58] by the general and the u.s attorney is absolutely true the president spoke on late saturday evening [28:05] with the message of unity and a backing of law enforcement and we have followed through on that [28:09] message of unity and the effectuation of law enforcement across this country this fbi is grateful [28:15] to the united states secret service the department of homeland security and our interagency partners [28:20] including the metropolitan police department for swiftly jumping into action all of us on there put [28:25] us in a unique position but all of us also acted uniquely the washington field office jumped into [28:31] action immediately sending a mobile command center uh to the scene along with our evidence response [28:36] technicians who showed up in speedy fashion to make sure we could collect the evidence that the [28:42] prosecutors in the department needed to make this announcement today also on scene you you were told [28:48] about the brave heroics of the united states secret service and other members of law enforcement and [28:53] that should be celebrated by every single american they did exactly what they were trained to do they [28:59] stopped a massive attack from becoming even worse they stood in the way they safeguarded america and [29:05] they should be nothing but applauded for their bravery and their dedication to their mission and [29:09] their selfish sacrifice to this country the fbi along with standing up mobile command units evidence [29:15] tech response team and washington swat on scene also established our nc3 our national crisis coordination [29:22] center almost immediately and almost immediately in parallel we stood up our command center at the [29:26] washington field office under adic darren cox's leadership throughout the evening we immediately began [29:33] working with our department of justice partners to find the evidence necessary to effectuate the legal [29:38] process necessary and enter into the suspect's room at the washington hilton successfully and lawfully [29:45] and obtain the relevant evidence for exploitation that was on scene back at the headquarters division [29:51] and the washington field office we were coordinating a national scale investigation that literally [29:57] spanded from coast to coast as you heard fbi agents along with the inner agency were immediately [30:02] dispatched to the suspects home in california where we conducted interviews that provided critical [30:07] information about this horrific attack we also dispatched investigators and agents to new london [30:13] connecticut where we conducted further interviews that provided necessary information that you will [30:17] find in this criminal complaint as the united states attorney has just laid out while officers were [30:22] working diligently through the night to conduct those interviews we were also conducting interviews [30:27] of witnesses on scene those interviews are ongoing as you know there was almost 2 000 people there [30:32] we are sifting through and prioritizing who to talk to and and we will get to each and every one of you [30:38] with any bit of relevant information again we ask everybody who has any relevant information like i did [30:44] on saturday night with the president 1-800 call fbi any piece of information is information we want to [30:50] have and must receive on top of the um on scene response by this fbi the headquarters response and the [30:58] washington field office response the fbi flipped on its enterprise-wide response to this critical incident [31:04] what does that mean we dispatched fixed-wing assets across the country so that we could immediately [31:08] transport evidence that was acquired in california and connecticut and sent it to our laboratories in [31:13] quantico for analysis we collected the shell casings on scene including the firearms and the weapons that [31:17] the judge talked about those were also sent to our quantico laboratories for immediate analysis [31:23] america should be proud that this fbi acted with the urgency that was needed for the moment that we had [31:28] to answer the president rightly said that we will act in a unified fashion and it's because of president [31:33] trump's leadership and backing of the blue every single person in law enforcement that i stood with [31:39] into late evening hours on saturday early evening hours on sunday and all day yesterday and today [31:44] are thrilled to wear the badge and defend this country each and every one of them deserves our [31:49] thanks and i encourage everyone listening to go out there and shake the hand of a federal agent or [31:53] police officer and say thank you for doing their job thank you for training endlessly to make sure they [31:58] meet the mission requirements and to for me as the director of the fbi i want to thank our [32:02] headquarters components we're working diligently with our prosecutors and make sure that the [32:07] american public knows it's not just federal agents that do this works it's our intelligence analysts [32:11] our support staff our laboratories our fixed wing assets our critical incident response groups our [32:16] hostage rescue teams agents sprung into action got out of bed and haven't slept since these prosecutors [32:22] haven't slept since and i promise you they're not going to be sleeping they are going to give you [32:26] every piece of evidence as the journal said we will make public when appropriate to protect the [32:32] integrity of this investigation to make sure that due process is served and we will meet the [32:37] highest standards of the constitution as we always do and that is when we will continue to [32:41] disclose information i know the public has a yearning for information but just remind yourself [32:46] of how much information you have already received how transparent this administration has [32:51] been in less than 48 hours you know almost every single thing we know and what we have not told you [32:57] yet we will tell you in short order so once again from me as director of the fbi i want to thank the [33:02] interagency i want to thank the united states secret service and their director mark wayne mullen the [33:07] secretary of homeland security the attorney general and united states attorney pierrot and ada cox for [33:11] springing into action on a night that should have been celebrating free speech but we will be doing [33:16] it again shortly as the president said and we look forward to seeing you all there pier two questions [33:25] please beyond the evidence and what the judge described as the manifesto what other evidence [33:32] can you point to that tells us that the president was the primary target of the suspect so we're a [33:40] day and a half into the investigation as as you've as we talked about earlier we were able to get [33:45] multiple devices from various locations the hotel room and also his um where where he lived in california [33:52] we have started that process there's nothing more that would be appropriate to share at this time [33:58] until we have have have thoroughly gone through it which we're doing and and we'll we'll share that [34:03] information as appropriate in the future second question go ahead beyond the assassination attempts [34:09] against president trump you had someone try to burn down the mansion where the governor lives in [34:15] pennsylvania you had those state lawmakers attacked in minnesota you've had two israeli embassy staff [34:22] members murdered in the city here you had the charlie kirk assassination you had the national guardsman [34:28] killed in the city can you each of you describe the current threat environment and what doj's stance [34:35] is about it well you just described the the current threat environment pretty accurately which is that [34:40] the political violence and rhetoric has has got to stop and that's something president trump said right [34:45] after the incident on saturday night it's something that that carolyn levitt talked about a couple hours ago [34:51] it is something that is when you have a president who who and many people in this room if we're going [34:56] to be honest about it have done it has done as well they're just as guilty as a lot of people on x when [35:01] you have when you have reporters when you have media media just being overly critical and calling the [35:07] president horrible names for no reason and without evidence without proof it shouldn't surprise us [35:13] that this type of rhetoric takes place if you look at what at what it appears that this defendant had in [35:19] his past we're talking about somebody who is college educated who has a job who is otherwise [35:24] living his life and and we'll find out more about him as i expect in the coming days and weeks [35:30] but but he chose to do what he did and so our threat environment is we are ready i mean i'm not [35:36] going to go through what what the what director patel just talked about with the way we responded [35:40] but this this was something that we will always be prepared for [35:43] and and it's sad that it has to happen but it's it's not a new thing unfortunately [35:49] um have you been able to determine whether the gunman fired shots if so how many shots he fired [35:56] and who exactly whose bullet hit the agent we're still we want to get that right so we're still looking [36:04] at that we it appears and i don't want to to overstate because we are still looking at this [36:09] that there were five five shots that that law enforcement fired we are we we have the all the [36:14] evidence is being examined very carefully and expeditiously and we'll know more soon we do [36:20] believe that as the complaint lays out that the suspect that the defendant fired it out of his [36:25] shotgun and and we know that that happened but as far as getting into exacting ballistics um i'm not [36:31] going to do that today because it's still being i'm being looked at and finalized uh thank you for [36:37] taking my question you personally have called for a construction of this ballroom at the white house [36:42] the president has called for this as well today the national trust president put out a statement [36:47] says that they're grateful that everybody's okay but and i quote we are not planning to [36:52] voluntary dismiss our lawsuit which endangers no one and which respectfully ask the administration [36:57] to follow the law ballroom construction is continuing unabated until june 5th at the earliest [37:02] because the injunction is on hold where does the justice department go from here [37:07] and then i have a follow-up on that well we filed a motion today asking the court to do what what [37:12] the plaintiffs refused to do we absolutely believe that there is no better example of why this ballroom [37:17] is necessary aside from all the the very positive things the ballroom will bring to this country and [37:22] to washington dc then what happened on on saturday night you guys many of you all were there that's one [37:28] of the only places in dc that you can hold an event like that due to due to its size and and and the [37:34] structure of what we need so we're basically stuck at this point in the city with having an event like [37:39] that at a hotel so underneath a ton of hotel rooms and so the fact that we aside again aside from the [37:46] fact that the ballroom is spectacular it's going to be beautiful it's going to make this country look [37:50] great every time it's used it's also a meaningful safety issue and so i'm not i i very much wish that [37:58] the plaintiffs and their counsel would take a different view but if they don't we are going [38:02] to continue to fight in court like we have been and and hopefully the the judges at the dc circuit [38:08] will court will will do the right thing are you aware are you aware of not you the red thank you [38:14] um are you investigating connections that cole allen allegedly had to left-wing groups i think one is [38:20] called the wide awakes reportedly yes we're of course we're investigating that now you are you aware of his [38:26] video game development past including uh potential um shooter style rpg game i've seen the news reports [38:34] that that talk about that i think that the the the positive and negatives of this type of case is [38:40] that is that there's a lot of people investigating this man right now including the fbi but the only [38:44] investigations that that truly matter in the court of law are the ones that director patel and his men [38:49] and women are doing so we'll wait for them to to do that and get an answer just really quick um what do you [38:56] do you know anything about his alleged christian past christian faith past um because he said [39:01] something about it in the manifesto i i have read reports in the news and i've read reports that say [39:07] various things regarding his views of christianity his views in the past of christianity and i i'm [39:13] certainly not going to speak to news reports i i will wait as i hope all of you would for the [39:19] investigation to to continue until we actually have answers yeah i just a little technical question [39:25] you you mentioned that you guys so far you think that alan fired at least one shot that doesn't say [39:33] that in the affidavit yet so i'm just curious if you can explain the discharging of weapon um charge [39:39] at this point well he's charged with violating 924c discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence so [39:46] by definition that charge means that it was discharged i can tell you from what i know with [39:52] the understanding that that we're a day and a half in that this this this is the gun that he discharged [39:58] and as those of us that have ever shot one of these know what happens when you shoot that is the the [40:03] casing stays inside the the firearm and then if you reload it it pops it out my understanding is that it [40:10] was inside the the firearm um but not hadn't been ejected which means that that it hadn't been pulled [40:16] back again but again i want folks to understand i'm the acting attorney general i'm not on the ground [40:21] doing the investigation so so i'm telling you what i've been told and and we'll if that information [40:26] changes i'm sure that we'll let you know yeah just want to ask you about this letter that you posted [40:31] yesterday that's sent from brett to the plaintiffs in that lawsuit um you said it says that the washington [40:37] hilton is quote demonstrably unsafe for the president of the united states um it said that [40:43] with the ballroom that trump will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the white house [40:47] perimeter just engaging with those lines was there an assessment in advance of the dinner that the [40:54] hilton was demonstrably unsafe and if so why was president trump allowed to attend it and then [41:01] separately just the idea that by building the ballroom that president trump wouldn't need to go outside of [41:07] the confines of the white house i mean is that something that the american people you know should [41:11] find acceptable that the president would have to be for major events confined to the white house it [41:16] seems like that is obviously not what he means by that if you and the fact that that question comes [41:23] with respect to president trump is laughable in the extreme i mean laughable in the extreme you have a [41:28] president who willingly speaks with you guys multiple times a day i would say seven days a week he is active [41:34] all over the country i think with that with that keeping it to the four corners of that statement [41:39] when he says demonstrably it's demonstrated by what happened on saturday night so it doesn't mean that [41:44] the secret service um were let would ever let the president go into an unsafe environment i know that [41:50] the director of the secret service will be focused on making sure that that we always keep him safe and [41:55] by the way as we said before and as anybody that was in that room knows we were safe we were safe we [42:01] heard a lot of loud noises that at the time many of us thought could be guns going off it was mostly [42:06] plates falling because of the staff understandably were were running so so my reaction to that is [42:12] i'll leave anything with respect to security up to the the great men and women of the secret service [42:17] but but when we talk about having an environment like the ballroom it's an environment like what [42:21] you saw last night so an environment where you have a unique blend of of cabinet members leadership of this [42:28] country leadership of congress reporters and members of the public coming together for an event like [42:34] that that's different than other public facing situations which i have no doubt president trump [42:39] will continue to do as he said he would on on saturday night yeah thank you um is there for fbi [42:45] director patel is there any um other credible threats at this time related to events in the city including [42:52] king charles and then separately um the manifesto i don't really want to give too much weight to this [42:57] did mention your name in it as someone that they maybe were not targeting do you want to kind of [43:02] elaborate on that and then also the political motivations there as the latter no as to the [43:07] former the fbi and the interagency is constantly evaluating intelligence provided to us by interagency [43:13] collection methods our partners in the federal and state and local levels we are constantly relaying [43:17] that information to the white house uh to the attorney general to the united states attorney [43:21] specifically here in dc and we will always assess each piece of intelligence and base it on the [43:26] credibility that it was received and give it the due weight that it has but as the uh u.s attorney [43:31] has stated and as president trump's task force for washington dc has shown we have reduced crime in [43:36] this city um by historic levels and we will continue to do so we will continue to safeguard the men and [43:42] women um that call washington dc their home all right just look at just a couple more [43:49] attorney general and paragraph 14 of the uh complaint today it says uh that the suspect fell and you said that [43:56] he was tackled i just want to see if we can try to make sure we understand well i think that both [44:04] can be true yeah um and i i would rely on the complaint because that was sworn to by an agent and [44:10] not by the words out of the acting attorney general who most certainly was not there but i think both can [44:14] be true the uh the uh the uh the u.s attorney yesterday also mentioned that uh one of the charges [44:19] possibly would be uh for assault on an officer and i noticed today it's a different charge is this because [44:26] you've determined that what he shot didn't actually strike the officer we're still looking at that and [44:31] i i think that that's something that you'll hear about in the coming days as we as we know the answer [44:37] to that it doesn't um legally matter um in that situation but but you you know there when when after [44:44] an event like this happens not surprisingly there's initial charges that we consider then you have [44:49] the the u.s attorney's team and the fbi looking through the evidence and figuring out what's the best [44:54] thing to do and that's what you have right just one more question yeah um i i have two quick [44:58] questions all right two questions i just wanted to clarify um you said the one officer fired their [45:03] weapon five times was that the only officer who discharged a firearm i want to be very careful in [45:09] answering that question because this is it when you do do ballistics um evidentiary collection and [45:15] research it is very complicated so when you fire a bullet the bullet ends up somewhere sometimes you [45:20] find it sometimes you don't and so from from that with that um qualifier we believe right now that [45:27] there was five shots fired um from the same from the same firearm but this is there's a team of folks [45:33] looking at this that are experts and the the evidence collection team that that were in that area of the [45:39] of the hotel where the the shots were fired um have that will work all night um they they have the [45:45] evidence they collected but but it's it's not an exact science from the standpoint that for example [45:51] the the buck shot when when that shot it scatters everywhere and sometimes it just disappears actually [45:56] depending on where it hits so you don't have to hopefully with that qualifier that's where we are [46:02] right now about the timeline sir hold on i just wanted to ask uh what what law enforcement has learned [46:08] about why he was targeting president trump does do you guys believe he was upset about a certain policy [46:13] or decision by the president the complaint lays out the what i think is described as a manifesto which [46:20] is something that that he's allegedly sent to to many folks his family um that's what we have so far [46:27] as far as his motivation as as the u.s attorney said a few minutes ago what is clear from the complaint [46:33] and from what we have so far is he was targeting president trump um he described that in his manifesto he [46:40] was targeting administration officials he described that but as far as us understanding additional [46:45] motivation that's for the fbi and and law enforcement um all right thanks a lot guys i appreciate it thank [46:51] you