The California man accused of targeting President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner last month has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, entered his plea at his arraignment Monday morning in federal court.
Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and additional weapons offenses.
The accused assassin wore an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the waist during the brief proceeding.
Prosecutors allege Allen breached a security checkpoint outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton on April 25 and fired a shotgun at a U.S. Secret Service agent before being tackled and subdued by law enforcement.
According to interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, evidence shows that the accused gunman intended to kill the president.
Allen’s defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe have urged the judge to disqualify Blanche and Pirro from the case. They raised the issue at Monday’s hearing, saying both Blanche and Pirro attended the dinner and could be considered witnesses or victims. Allen’s lawyers had previously suggested in a court filing that the appointment of a special prosecutor might even be warranted.
The judge on Monday didn’t rule on the issue, but asked the defense to elaborate on the scope of its recusal motion and ordered prosecutors to respond to the defense by May 22.
Allen’s court appearance was the first one to be held in Washington federal court before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.
Monday’s brief proceeding comes one week after a previous judge apologized to Allen for his treatment in a local Washington, D.C., jail, which included being placed on suicide precautions and isolated from other inmates.
His attorneys had complained that he was unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip-searched, and placed in restraints outside his cell. Allen has since been removed from suicide watch.
Trump was rushed off stage unharmed at the dinner, later saying about the attack: “When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone. They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”
Allen faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge alone.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.