United States Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui questioned how the alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter was being treated behind bars.
During a court hearing on Monday, May 4, Faruqui questioned Tony Towns, the acting general counsel for the D.C. Department of Corrections, about what Cole Tomas Allen was being subjected to in jail.
According to public defender Eugene Ohm, his client had been held alone for up to 23 hours a day in a padded cell with constant lighting. Allen was also allegedly stripped of some basic privileges, including visits, nonlegal phone calls and access to a Bible.
The conditions Faruqui described as “effectively solitary confinement.”
“I’m obviously very concerned about how we’ve gotten here,” Faruqui shared via the New York Times. “He’s been treated completely differently than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
At another point in the courtroom proceedings, Faruqui reiterated his concern for how Allen was being treated and even offered an apology to the suspect.
“I am very troubled by what they indicate the conditions that you have been subjected to. I’m sorry,” Faruqui shared via NBC News. “It sounds like things have not been the way they’re supposed to. … My concern remains if this is what’s happening in this case, what’s happening in every other case.”
Allen was apprehended outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton on April 25 shortly after shots were fired during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The 31-year-old California resident was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives, according to authorities, when he was safely taken into custody.
One secret service agent was shot during the incident and survived thanks to a ballistic vest.
During an impromptu press conference after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was canceled, President Donald Trump called Allen a “whack job” and “lone wolf.”
“He was a sick person, a very sick person,” Trump, 79, claimed to reporters. “He was running full blast, and they got him before he got any further. I was very far away, he wasn’t anywhere close to breaching the doors of the ballroom. My impression is he was a lone wolf wack job.”
After his arrest on April 25, Allen — who has yet to enter a plea — was charged with three criminal charges, including attempting to assassinate Trump. He told the FBI that he didn’t expect to survive the incident, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine.
“It’s clear he did not expect to survive it,” Ballantine claimed in court, “which gives rise to potential concern for suicide.”
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