Cole Allen’s attorneys said their presence at the alleged assassination attempt was a conflict of interest.
A federal judge on June 22 denied Cole Allen’s request to disqualify acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from his case.
Allen’s attorneys had argued that Blanche and Pirro’s presence at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner the night he allegedly tried to assassinate the president and other officials was a conflict of interest.
That technically made them witnesses, and “victims” of the alleged crime, the lawyers argued.
Allen’s lawyers also said Pirro’s close friendship with President Donald Trump meant she could not properly try the case.
They asked Judge Trevor McFadden to disqualify Pirro, Blanche, and the entire U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.
McFadden found those arguments unpersuasive.
“The court is not blind to the unusual position of the Justice Department officials who attended the dinner and now oversee Allen’s prosecution,” McFadden wrote in his opinion on Monday.
“Nor is it blind to its own responsibility to act as a neutral arbiter. … They are unlikely to be trial witnesses, nor do they meet the legal definition of victims. Their statements about the investigation and friendships with the president likewise present no basis for screening them from the case,” the judge continued.
“But the court does not see any impropriety in the Justice Department fulfilling its role. Nor is there, for example, any evidence that Blanche’s and Pirro’s experiences colored the indictment decision.”
Even if he had found a conflict of interest, McFadden said, he would only have disqualified the two officials, not the entire U.S. attorney’s office.
“Allen’s concerns are mostly a symptom of the charged crime,” McFadden wrote.
He pointed out that Allen was accused of trying to assassinate the president, and it falls to the DOJ to help the president enforce the law.
