By Ted Hesson, Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a potential motive for the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration at a White House reporters’ gala last month, according to an intelligence report sent to state and local law enforcement nationwide and other federal agencies.
The report, a preliminary assessment by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis dated April 27, assessed that the suspect Cole Allen had “multiple social and political grievances.” It concluded that the Iran conflict “may have contributed to his decision to conduct the attack,” citing social media posts from Allen that criticized U.S. actions in the war.
The assessment sheds new light on the U.S. government’s search for a motive in the foiled attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25. Its conclusions, while preliminary, offer the most definitive evidence to date that the Iran conflict, which has killed thousands in the Middle East and rattled the global economy, could have been a trigger.
The report, marked as a “Critical Incident Note,” was obtained through open records requests by the transparency nonprofit Property of the People and shared with Reuters.
Spokespeople for DHS and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department added a charge of assault on a federal officer, accusing Allen of firing at a U.S. Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, in addition to attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and illegal transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines. He has not yet entered a plea.
FBI EXAMINES SOCIAL MEDIA
U.S. officials have so far said little about Allen’s alleged motivation, pointing only to an email Allen sent to relatives on the night of the attack. The message, which officials have called a manifesto, expressed anger at the administration and referred to his desire to target the “traitor” giving a speech, without mentioning Trump by name.
In court documents, prosecutors have alleged that Allen “disagreed” with Trump politically and “wanted to ‘fight back’ against government policies and decisions that he found morally objectionable.”
The FBI has been carrying out a detailed examination of Allen’s social media activity and digital footprint in searching for a motive for the attack, a senior law enforcement official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“It’s being closely looked at,” the official told Reuters.
The examination includes a review of posts on a Bluesky social media account linked to Allen that posted and shared a range of anti-Trump messages in the weeks leading up to the attack. The posts include criticism of the U.S. actions in Iran but also broadsides against the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, Elon Musk, and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The account shared a post calling for Trump to be impeached over his April 7 threat to destroy Iranian civilization, which came hours before Trump agreed to a ceasefire. It also shared criticism of reporters who planned to attend the press dinner.
The FBI has also reviewed a 2024 post in which an account connected to Allen, while quoting a Bible verse, appears to call Trump “the devil” in response to a message from Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
The focus on Allen’s online activity is in part to stave off conspiracy theories about the motive and online activity of the suspected shooter, the official said, adding that speculation about the online activity of the man who fired at Trump during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, had sparked widely spread conspiracy theories.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson, Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Rosalba O’Brien)
