Administration

Pirro says bullet that hit Secret Service agent at WHCA dinner was ‘definitively’ fired by gunman

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by Max Rego - 05/03/26 10:13 AM ET

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by Max Rego - 05/03/26 10:13 AM ET

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Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, affirmed Sunday that the bullet that hit a Secret Service agent at last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was fired by the alleged gunman.

Pirro told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” that prosecutors have video of the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, shooting at the Secret Service officer, and the officer himself confirmed that he was shot.

The U.S. attorney also noted that prosecutors “can establish” that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the alleged gunman’s firearm was “intertwined with the fiber” of the vest that the Secret Service officer was wearing.

“It is definitely his bullet, he hit at that Secret Service agent, he had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro added. “This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president and anyone who was in the line of fire.”

Earlier this week, Secret Service Director Sean Curran told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network, that the suspect shot the officer at “point-blank range” after charging a security checkpoint.

“Our officer heroically returned fire,” Curran added.

Allen was charged on Monday with attempting to assassinate President Trump and multiple firearms violations, and he remains in detention ahead of trial.

If convicted of attempting to assassinate Trump, the man could face up to life in prison. His preliminary hearing is currently scheduled for May 11.

While the suspect did not mention the president by name in a manifesto he sent to those close to him before the shooting, he wrote that he was targeting administration officials “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”

Pirro also said Sunday that based on that manifesto and other evidence, it is “very clear” that Allen was targeting Trump.

“It is very clear, based upon the fact that as soon as this president said that he was going to be at the [Washington] Hilton for the White House Correspondents’ dinner on March 2, [the suspect] then made the decision to hatch the plan,” she told Tapper.

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