Video taken moments before a gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner showed a police canine appearing to follow the would-be assassin into a side room—something not mentioned in the criminal complaint or the affidavit from an FBI agent.
United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the District of Columbia released nearly six minutes of new video Thursday apparently showing 31-year-old Cole Allen entering a side room near the magnetometers set up as security for the event, which President Donald Trump was attending for the first time while in office. While Pirro said in a social media post that the video also showed Allen “casing” the location the previous day, it also showed the police canine following Allen into the side room before the handler pulled on the leash; the occurrence of the incident caught on the released video was omitted from court documents. (RELATED: ‘I Fought Like Hell To Stay’: Trump Addresses Assassination Attempt At White House Correspondents’ Dinner)
WATCH:
Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly… pic.twitter.com/a8gRXkW6BH
— US Attorney Pirro (@USAttyPirro) April 30, 2026
“We are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Pirro posted. “There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire. The video also shows Allen casing the area in the Hilton Hotel the day before the attack. My office along with the @FBI will continue this extensive investigation to bring Cole Allen to justice.”
The video shows Allen walking through the hotel and entering a workout facility around 9:00 p.m. EDT on April 24. The video then skips to 8:23 p.m. on April 25, showing Allen, dressed in a long black coat, walking down the hall.
The video then shows Allen, highlighted with a circle, going into a side room prior to reaching the magnetometers, with a police officer’s canine following him into the room around 8:36 p.m., seconds before Allen allegedly carried out his attempt to storm the event. The Daily Caller News Foundation examined the documents and found no mention of the incident with the police canine unit.
Allen took selfies in the mirror that were included in court documents depicting him with three knives, a bag of ammunition and a semiautomatic pistol in a shoulder holster.
Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California, who graduated from Cal Tech, traveled by train from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., via Chicago.
Allen appeared in court Monday to face charges of attempting to assassinate Trump, discharging a firearm during a violent crime and transporting firearms across state lines with the intent to commit a violent crime.
Pirro and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment by the DCNF about the omission of the police canine’s actions.
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