DOJ drops key claim from criminal complaint against Cole Allen
The Department of Justice removed a key claim from its legal filings regarding the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, contradicting its initial probable cause affidavit.
The original weekend affidavit stated Secret Service Officer V.G. was shot in the chest and protected by a ballistic vest when Cole Allen allegedly fired at security checkpoint. However, Wednesday's memorandum supporting pretrial detention omitted any mention of the officer being shot, instead describing only that Allen fired a shotgun in the direction of the ballroom stairs and that an officer responded with five shots.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to confirm whether Allen shot the officer during a press conference, claiming ballistics analysis was ongoing.
Initial media reports indicated the officer was hit in the chest, with the vest preventing serious injury. The discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of early accounts and the government's evolving narrative of the incident.
Watch the video below.
Abby Phillip brutally fact-checks MAGA pundit with devastating takedown
CNN's Abby Phillip brutally fact-checked a MAGA pundit during Monday's broadcast of her show "NewsNight" over the White House's claim that left-wing rhetoric inspired the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday.
Ben Ferguson, who co-hosts the "Verdict" podcast with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined the panel to discuss the shooting, and defended the White House's claim that Democrats inspired the shooter to attack the event. He pointed to recent statements from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and language the shooter included in his alleged manifesto as evidence that the rhetoric inspired the attack.
Phillip fact-checked Ferguson's claims with a couple of clips putting the Democrats' statements into their full context, and highlighting how Trump has spoken of Democrats the same way he has accused them of speaking about him.
"The point is that it's not that Donald Trump is responsible for violence against those people. The point is that it's not enough to explain that the moment we are in is just, 'Did he call her a fascist? Did she call him a fascist?'" Phillip said. "Because that is happening on both sides of the debate. There is more that is contributing to where we are as a country, and it is bad. It is unquestionably bad. And if we fail to actually address the root causes, we are going nowhere."
