Assassination Attempt Suspect Charged

Hi. I'm Juliet from New York Times games, and I'm here talking to fans about our games. You play New York Times games? Yes. Every day. There's this little tab down here called friends. So you could add your friend. That feels new to me. It is. It's nice to have the social aspect. Oh my god. And you have all their times. That's crazy. Right? You can look at spelling bee, Wordle, connections. Oh my god. Amazing. Love that. I'll have to get the app. New York Times game subscribers get full access to all our games and features. Subscribe now at nytimes.com/games for a special offer. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for being here. On Saturday night, as you all know, an act of violence occurred at a gathering that symbolizes something fundamental to our system of government. From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. Today, the Department of Justice filed three federal charges in United States District Court against Cole Thomas Allen. The first time is a 10 On Monday, the man accused of storming the White House correspondents center with multiple weapons was charged in federal court in Washington DC. Violence has no place in civic life. It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who serve them, and it certainly cannot continue to be used against the president of The United States. Today, Devlin Barrett explains what we're learning about the suspect, his plan to target the president, and whether this entire event should ultimately be thought of as a security failure or success. It's Tuesday, April 28. Devlin Barrett, welcome back to The Daily. Thanks for having me. So we've been getting some clarity on who this shooter was who attempted to storm the White House correspondents dinner on Saturday. Details have been emerging since this happened. But, Devlin, you covered the justice department for The Times. Tell us what we learned on Monday. So on Monday, there were a few key developments. First, the suspect, Cole Allen, was formally charged in a criminal complaint. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president. That wasn't the only charge, but it's the most important charge by far because that charge carries a potential life sentence. The other two charges in the criminal complaint are transportation of a firearm over interstate commerce, and that's a reference to him allegedly bringing weapons across country, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. That charge basically means that he fired the weapon while committing a crime. And one thing that officials have emphasized since this happened is that the first round of charges aren't going to be their last word on this. There may be more charges added as they understand the evidence better and as they have a better grasp on what exactly they think happened. Let's talk for a moment about the suspect. At this point, what have we learned about his …