A federal judge apologized to the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner during his court appearance on Monday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said he was “fascinated and disturbed” by Cole Thomas Allen’s jail conditions, according to Fox News.
In a filing on May 2, Allen’s attorneys requested a hearing with the judge, arguing that their client’s right to due process under the U.S. Constitution was being threatened by being put under suicide status and held in a “safe cell” despite not being a risk.
His attorneys then filed a motion to vacate the hearing on Monday upon learning that Allen was taken off suicide status, but Faruqui kept the scheduled hearing due to “grave concerns” he had about Allen’s “seemingly unprompted solitary confinement for days and overall conditions of confinement,” according to USA Today.
The prosecution said Allen was held in suicidal status under recommendation from the FBI. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen told law enforcement after he was apprehended that “he did not expect to survive the attempted assassination of the president,” per the New York Post.
During the Monday hearing, Faruqui apologized to Allen for what he had experienced while incarcerated and compared him to Jan. 6, 2021, defendants.
“To me, it’s extremely disturbing that he was put in five-point restraints, a person with no criminal history. It’s troubling. I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell. If the only way to keep him safe is the most punitive thing, that’s a problem,” he said, per Fox News. “At a minimum, I should be apologizing to him. We are obligated to make sure he’s taken care of. Mr. Allen, I’m sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to.”
Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from California, was arraigned last week just days after he had allegedly charged past a security checkpoint armed with weapons and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service outside the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Upon hearing that Faruqui had apologized to Allen, Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, posted on X:
“Welcome to Washington, DC, where U.S. 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.”
The defendan’ts next court date is a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 11.