The One Name The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Gunman Left Off His Target List: Kash Patel

Ten minutes before Cole Tomas Allen sprinted toward a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, he sent a document to members of his family.

The 1,052-word manifesto — a sprawling, self-justifying text that laid out his plan to kill members of the Trump administration at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — was transmitted to a sister in Rockville, Maryland, and a brother in Connecticut, multiple news outlets reported Sunday, citing law enforcement officials who had reviewed the document. By the time the family finished reading it and contacted authorities, Allen had already opened fire.

Inside that document, investigators found one name that stood apart from all the others: Kash Patel. The FBI director — who was seated in the same ballroom Allen was trying to reach — was the only senior Trump administration official the manifesto explicitly exempted from the killing plan. No reason was given for the exception. Allen offered no explanation, and his communications since his arrest have not, according to published reports, addressed the question.

It is among the more peculiar and unanswered details of an evening that shocked the capital and put the question of political violence back at the center of American public life.

The Evening at the Hilton: What Happened

The 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, held Saturday at the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., was, by many measures, a historically significant occasion. At 8:36 p.m., Allen rushed a Secret Service security checkpoint near the main magnetometer area just outside the ballroom, according to CBS News and the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C. He was carrying a shotgun in his hand and was also armed with a handgun and multiple knives, D.C. Metro Police Interim Chief Jeffrey Carroll confirmed at a press briefing. A law enforcement officer was struck during the exchange of gunfire but was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and is expected to recover fully, according to ABC News and CBS News. Allen sustained a knee injury during the tackle that brought him to the ground and was taken to a hospital for treatment before being placed in federal custody.

Inside the ballroom, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer — who was positioned outside the main hall at the time — later described being just a few feet from the shooter when the rounds were fired, according to Wikipedia’s account of the event. Blitzer said Allen appeared to be firing what he characterized as a very serious weapon at least six times before being tackled by police. Blitzer was escorted to safety in a nearby restroom by officers.

Trump was rushed from the head table by Secret Service agents within seconds. He later told reporters at a White House briefing that he initially mistook the sound of gunfire for something falling. “I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray going down,” Trump said, as quoted by ABC News. “It was a gun. It was pretty far away, but it was a gun.” He said the Secret Service moved very quickly and evacuated him and the First Lady within seconds.

The Manifesto: A Self-Described “Friendly Federal Assassin”

The document Allen sent to his family in the minutes before the attack was first reported by the New York Post on Sunday.

In the manifesto, Allen identified himself with an elaborate self-assigned designation: “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen,” according to the Daily Beast. The document, at 1,052 words, was not a rambling screed but a structured plan, framing his intended actions in language drawn from Christian theology, political grievance, and a calculated — if chilling — attempt to minimize collateral harm.

As the New York Post reported, Allen wrote: “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” 

The target list was explicit and hierarchical. As the New York Post reported, Allen wrote: “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” The parenthetical carve-out for Patel is the manifesto’s most discussed detail — and its least explained. No sentence in the document, as reported by any outlet that reviewed excerpts, accounts for why the FBI director was spared designation as a target.

ABC7 Los Angeles confirmed that Allen did not mention President Trump by name anywhere in the manifesto. He did, those reporters found, write that FBI Director Kash Patel was not a target — but offered no rationale.

Regarding other law enforcement and security personnel, the document drew distinctions. Allen wrote that he would target Secret Service agents only “if necessary,” and that he did not intend to target other law enforcement or security personnel “unless they shoot at me,” according to the Daily Beast. Hotel employees and guests, he wrote, were not his primary targets, though the manifesto made clear he was willing to move through them to reach administration officials — a passage the Washington Times quoted in excerpts: “I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people chose to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The manifesto also included a passage reflecting Allen’s professed religious framework. The Washington Times quoted an excerpt in which Allen wrote about the limits of Christian forbearance — arguing that passive acceptance of injustice inflicted on others does not constitute Christian virtue.

Patel: From Target List to Press Briefing

Among the more striking visual images of Saturday night was the press briefing held at the White House after Trump was evacuated from the Hilton. Standing alongside the president at the podium were Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — and Kash Patel, the one senior Trump administration official whom the alleged gunman had chosen, for reasons no one yet understands, not to list as a target.

Patel, in his role as FBI director, told reporters at the briefing that investigators were examining ballistics evidence, including the recovered long gun and shell casings, and conducting witness interviews. He urged the public to come forward with any relevant information. “No piece of information is too small,” Patel said.

The Daily Beast captured a moment described from video footage of the briefing: as Patel addressed Trump directly about the dynamic between the FBI and the presidency, Trump patted him on the back.

The question that investigators have not yet answered — why Allen chose to spare Patel from a list that included virtually every other senior figure in the room — remains open. The manifesto does not say. Allen, as of Sunday, had not provided an explanation that investigators have made public.

It may be the most important detail in the document that no one yet understands.