Lawyers float ‘it was only a shotgun’ defense in attempt to free would-be Trump assassin

bold strategy

Lawyers float ‘it was only a shotgun’ defense in attempt to free would-be Trump assassin

In a desperate courtroom gambit, lawyers for accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman Cole Allen tried to argue that their client wasn’t really equipped for a mass shooting — because, wait for it — he brought the “wrong kind” of gun.

Allen, 31, stands accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump during one of Washington’s most high-profile, security-heavy events — a night packed with power players, including the president, Melania Trump, and top administration officials.

But his defense team initially insisted the whole thing was overblown.

“Mr. Allen was not alleged to be holding an automatic or even semi-automatic weapon that are the hallmarks of the modern day mass shooting,” his attorneys wrote in a filing that raised more eyebrows than sympathy. Don’t worry, your honor — it was just a pump-action shotgun. Because nothing says “harmless” like a fully loaded 12-gauge Mossberg with an extended magazine, allegedly carried while trying to force past Secret Service at a presidential event.


Prosecutors, not surprisingly, weren’t buying it. And neither should anyone with a memory longer than five minutes. Shotguns have been used in some of America’s most notorious massacres — from Columbine High School massacre to Aurora theater shooting and the Santa Fe High School shooting.

Even more chilling: feds say Allen didn’t stop at one weapon. Court documents describe a selfie he snapped before the chaos — allegedly showing him armed with a .38-caliber semi-automatic handgun and multiple knives. Not exactly the Boy Scout image his lawyers were pitching.

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