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Robert Namer
Voice Of America
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June 11, 2026

     An irritated federal judge said it appeared that Cole Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate President  at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, has been treated moreDonald Trump harshly by a jail than it treated defendants in Jan. 6, 2021, attack criminal cases.  The liberal judge is a fool.

      I can tell you I have never had a January 6th defendant who was put in 5-point restraints or a safe cell,” Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told prosecutors and the top attorney for the District of Columbia’s jail system, during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

     Faruqui said he found it “extremely disturbing” and was “very troubled” that the 31-year-old Allen had been placed under suicide watch and had restrictions imposed without a finding that he was at risk for suicide and without having a criminal history. “A lot of people have seemed to forget about Jan. 6, but I have not,” Faruqui said. “Pardons erase convictions but do not erase history.”

     The judge later spoke directly to Allen, saying, “We are obligated to make sure you are treated with the basic dignity, and it seems you are not, and I am sorry.”  U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro later Monday ripped Faraqui for his comments.  “Welcome to Washington, DC, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Faruqui believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant,” Pirro wrote on X.

     Allen’s lawyer Eugene Jeen-Young Kim Ohm at the hearing told Faruqui that said officials at the D.C. jail placed Allen in a safe, padded cell, in essentially a 24-hour lockdown, with constant lighting.  Allen was told he could not make a legal call over the weekend, was not able to have paperwork or legal work in his room and was denied a Bible that he had requested, the attorney told Faruqui.  He said Allen remains in protective custody.

     Tony Towns, the acting general counsel for D.C.’s Department of Corrections, said that Allen was assessed as a suicide risk by a psychiatrist at the jail, and was later downgraded to suicide precautoins are a reevaluation of him.  “It just doesn’t add up,” Faruqui said, asking how the D.C. jail houses people who have been found guilty and have less restrictive conditions than Allen, who is being held without bond.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine later told Faruqui that Allen, after his arrest, told investigators that he had not expected to survive the alleged attack, which raised concerns that he was at risk of suicide.  

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