FBI affidavit accuses Cole Allen of wanting to kill Trump and expressing rage at ‘a pedophile, rapist, and traitor’
In his interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Donald Trump lambasted Norah O’Donnell for asking him to react to the words of the man accused of trying to assassinate him, Cole Allen, who wrote in his manifesto: “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
After telling the CBS News interviewer that only “horrible people” would ask him about that, the president said: “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell did a double take and said: “Oh you think – do you think he was referring to you?”
“I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile,” Trump replied. “You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things.”
Trump has repeatedly made the false claim that the partial release of documents from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender he socialized with for nearly two decades, had “exonerated” him and implicated only Democrats. In fact, a large number of documents have not been released and a number of Republicans have faced questions over their relationship with Epstein, including Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
The president then attacked O’Donnell again, saying: “You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.”
Trump was apparently happy enough with his answer to O’Donnell’s question that the exchange was included in a highlight reel from the interview posted on the White House’s YouTube channel.
Despite the president’s anger at being asked about what he took to be a description of him, which has become common among his critics amid widespread anger at his long friendship with Epstein, an FBI affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against Allen, filed in federal court on Monday, quotes the same part of the manifesto as part of its case that the suspect planned to assassinate Trump.
According to the affidavit, Allen sent a note to family and friends by email shortly before he attempted to charge into the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night in Washington, is which he described his motivation as follows:
double quotation markOn to why I did any of this:
I am a citizen of the United States of America.
What my representatives do reflects on me.
And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.
(Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago,