Brian Cole Jr., the FBI’s suspect in the Jan. 5 to 6, 2021, pipe-bomb case, appeared before a federal judge on April 22 and pleaded not guilty to the two additional felony charges filed against him in a second superseding indictment.

Federal authorities arrested Cole in December, accusing him of planting two pipe bombs, one outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters and one outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, in the hours leading up to the Jan 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol. The bombs did not detonate.

A ‘real mic-drop’ moment.

A second superseding indictment, filed Apr. 14, included the original charges of interstate transportation of explosives and a malicious attempt to use explosives. It also added two additional charges: an attempt to use weapons of mass destruction and an act of terrorism while armed. If found guilty of these new charges, Cole could face a sentence of life in prison.

The status hearing last week included an arraignment for the additional charges, to which Cole pleaded not guilty.

Cole’s defense team requested early in the hearing to discuss setting a trial date, suggesting early December, according to the hearing’s transcript obtained by Blaze News.

Prosecutors proposed holding another status hearing before setting a trial date, explaining that they were not yet prepared to estimate how long the trial would take, particularly with the additional charges.

Cara Castronuova, a reporter with LindellTV, called the defense’s request a “real mic-drop” moment.

“I think that really surprised the prosecution. Their mouths sort of fell open. A lot of the FBI agents and the DOJ that were sitting there watching sort of looked at each other in disbelief,” Castronuova stated.

RELATED: Brian Cole Jr.’s physical presence, posture, mannerisms are no match to FBI’s hoodie-clad pipe-bomb suspect

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

“I don’t think that they expected that. I think that they added all of these new charges sort of hoping that this young man, Brian Cole Jr. … would be scared and plea out.”

The attorneys for both sides provided the judge with an update on the discovery process.

Prosecutors stated that they had obtained “over a terabyte of data” and that they were still gathering additional information, including witness interview materials.

Cole’s attorney, Alex Little with Litson PLLC, said the defense intended to subpoena Congress for Jan. 6 committee records. Little explained to the judge that they had plans to review lawmakers’ investigation into the pipe bomber, stating that he believes that they may “have materials that we think would be useful.”

The defense also shared potential plans to present “a third-party perpetrator defense” and indicated that they want to “rebut potential alibis of that third party.”

During the hearing, the attorneys and judge also discussed the controversy surrounding a recent motion filed by the defense team.

Cole’s legal team previously filed a motion on Apr. 1 claiming that former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff was “named as a person of interest in the January 5–6, 2021 pipe bomb investigation.” The court filing claimed Kerkhoff was subjected to an FBI polygraph examination and that she “failed” after she was asked, “Did you place those pipe bombs?” and “Did you place those pipe bombs that evening?” Cole’s attorneys further noted that the polygraph examiner called Kerkhoff’s responses “seemingly rehearsed.”

Kerkhoff has been officially cleared by the FBI and is no longer a suspect in the case.

Federal prosecutors argued that the motion violated the case’s protective order, which set guidelines for handling confidential and sensitive discovery materials, including identifying information. Prosecutors requested that the judge hold Cole’s attorneys in contempt for the public filing.

RELATED: Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff files lawsuit against Blaze Media

Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Cole’s defense team asserted that the motion did not violate the protective order in the case, stating that they “were surprised” the government believed it did.

“Your Honor, they immediately jumped to ask to hold me in contempt,” Little stated.

“I find it important to make this record for the court. There was nothing in that protective order that we believed are satisfied by the things we put in that motion. We wouldn’t have filed them. That’s not the way we do things.”

He expressed regret and referred to as a “mistake” that the motion contained an individual’s home address. He noted that the address should have been removed.

Cole’s attorney stated that other than that one instance, prosecutors did not specify any other personally identifiable information in the motion. He claimed that prosecutors were unnecessarily labeling discovery materials as sensitive, including “photographs of shoes that you can get on the web.”

“I think the difficulty is when we have now two terabytes, three terabytes of discovery, do I need to show the government a draft of each of my motions to decide whether the information” could be submitted in a public court filing, Little stated, adding that prosecutors had made “half” of the discovery material “sensitive.”

Prosecutors argued that the defense’s “gambit worked,” stating that the public motion “went everywhere” and was “covered by the media.”

“The damage was done,” a federal attorney told the judge.

Little stated that they “immediately” moved to get the motion “under seal” after being notified by prosecutors that the address was in the public motion.

The defense withdrew the motion, which removed it from the public docket, and filed it under seal. Cole’s team then requested that the motion be unsealed with redactions.

The judge ordered counsel to confer and come back to the court with “a proposed redacted version” of the defense’s motion.

Castronuova highlighted a moment when the judge reportedly “just started yelling” at the defense attorneys.

“He went from zero to 10 out of nowhere on the defense,” she continued. “No one really understood why. He just got angry at something they said and just started reprimanding them, embarrassing them, and yelling at them in court.”

At multiple points throughout the hearing, the judge told the defense to “stop talking,” according to the transcript.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reacted to updates from the status hearing last week, suggesting that the defense “put the plainclothes Capitol Police officers who ‘found’ the second bomb on the stand.”

Massie urged them to ask, “Why didn’t you immediately begin looking for a third bomb?” “Who told you to go to that area and look for it?” and “Why was the bomb not immediately dealt with?”

“And a new question: why did you look so intently under the empty bush where the pipe bomber dwelled for so long the night before?” Massie continued.

“This trial could get interesting.”

Cole’s defense team declined to comment. He is scheduled to appear back in court on May 29 for another status hearing.

On Friday, Cole’s defense team submitted a motion further arguing for the dismissal of the case due to a lack of jurisdiction. His attorneys previously contended that President Donald Trump’s broad pardons related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, which applied to “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol,” should also cover Cole’s case.

The government rejected the argument, stating that Cole had no pending indictment at the time the presidential proclamation was issued on Jan. 20, 2025. Prosecutors also asserted that the pipe bombs were placed on Jan. 5, 2021, and therefore were not related to the protest on Jan. 6.

Cole’s lawyers responded to the government’s arguments by stating that “a strict time limit does not exist in the text of” the president’s pardon and, therefore, should not be inferred from it. They claimed it was “an on-going directive.” They also reasoned that the timing and proximity of the pipe-bomb incident to the Jan. 6 protest indicate a connection.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Brian cole jr, Democratic national committee, Doj, Jan 6, Jan. 6, Jan. 6 committee, News, Pipe bomb, Republican national committee, Dnc, Rnc, Jan 6 pipe bomber, Brian cole, Politics 

A former Parent Teacher Association board member in Texas was arrested by federal agents on Thursday for possession of child pornography, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

Homeland Security Investigations agents, alongside the Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, executed a search warrant at the home of 42-year-old Benjamin Milfelt.

‘This sicko was in several positions of trust with children of his community, including as a Parent Teacher Association board member and elementary school volunteer.’

Law enforcement agents discovered more than 2,000 images of child pornography on Milfelt’s phone, the press release claimed.

The DHS stated that Milfelt previously served on the PTA and was a member of WATCH D.O.G.S., a volunteer group at Mireles Elementary School in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Local news outlet KRIS reported that the volunteer group is “part of a national education initiative that brings fathers, grandfathers, and other male role models into school to volunteer.”

RELATED: Tim Tebow shows disturbing map of the child sexual abuse material epidemic on US soil

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Corpus Christi Independent School District issued a letter to parents regarding Milfelt’s arrest, although he is not named in the letter.

“CCPD notified Mireles of the situation involving the former volunteer, who has not been on school property since prior to the notification,” the district’s notice read. “Out of respect for the important work of law enforcement, we cannot share any additional information.”

RELATED: Fresno candidate’s registered child sex offender status sparks outrage after city council campaign launch

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

KRIS reported that law enforcement investigators discovered two phones in Milfelt’s pickup truck, one of which allegedly contained several explicit videos and images of children, both male and female, between the ages of 10 and 14 years old.

“This sicko was in several positions of trust with children of his community, including as a Parent Teacher Association board member and elementary school volunteer. He possessed thousands of images of child pornography,” DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis alleged in a statement. “Thanks to the work of the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, this disgusting criminal is off the streets and can no longer prey on innocent children. He now is being brought to justice for his heinous crimes against children.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Corpus christi, Benjamin milfelt, Csam, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Homeland security investigations, Hsi, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, News, Parent teach association, Pta, Texas, Politics 

Newly released court documents reveal that the third alleged would-be Trump assassin snapped a selfie just moments before opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

Just half an hour before the attack, the suspected gunman, identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, apparently snapped a mirror selfie in his Washington Hilton hotel room showing firearms and ammunition strapped to his body.

‘It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence.’

According to the new court documents, the image shows Allen smirking in the mirror while “wearing a small leather bag consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person,” as well as a holster and two sheathed knives.

The documents also contain images of the shotgun, handgun, and knives the suspect was carrying when he rushed a security checkpoint and fired shots in the Washington Hilton lobby.

“Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones wrote.

RELATED: Karoline Leavitt names and shames Democrats who inspired WHCD assassination attempt

President Trump, Truth Social/Anadolu/Getty Images

Allen was ultimately charged with one count of attempting to assassinate the president, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, as well as discharge of a firearm during a violent crime.

“This was a planned attack of unfathomable malice that risked the lives of hundreds of people whose only transgression was attending an annual event celebrating the media and featuring the President of the United States,” Jones added.

“It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cole allen, Political violence, Whcd shooter, White house correspondents dinner, Donald trump, Trump assassination attempt, Secret service, Politics 

The Supreme Court issued a shocking ruling on Wednesday about a congressional map in Louisiana that was drawn to give black voters a boost in representation.

The case, Louisiana v. Callais, involved a challenge by Louisiana voters in a congressional district that was redrawn after the 2020 census. The Supreme Court struck the map down, concluding it is an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander” that cannot be justified under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

‘That map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.’

Justice Samuel Alito penned the majority opinion of the court and was joined by his five fellow conservative justices. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, and Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in which he was joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

The Supreme Court decided that the “time had come” to deliver a clear answer on what for 30 years had simply been assumed about Voting Rights Act case law.

RELATED: SCOTUS rules on law banning ‘conversion therapy’ — and 2 liberal justices break rank

Chip Somodevilla/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Succinctly put, the opinion of the court, stated in the syllabus, holds: “Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, went farther, arguing that the prevailing wisdom of the last 30 years of VRA case law and districting practices has been fraught with error. The court “led legislatures and courts to ‘systematically divid[e] the country into electoral district along racial lines,'” thus rendering Section 2 “repugnant to any nation that strives for the ideal of a color-blind Constitution,” he wrote.

Thomas concluded his concurring opinion with the proclamation: “No §2 challenge to districting should ever succeed.”

The liberal justices of the Supreme Court lamented the decision and its implications for Section 2: “The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the decision of the court on social media: “Extremely gratified to see this decision we’ve been waiting for! I was proud to co-author the brief for the United States as amicus in this important case, perhaps one of the most important developments in decades in Voting Rights Act jurisprudence!”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Assistant attorney general, Black voters, Clarence thomas, Colorblind constitution, Congressional map, Democrats, Harmeet dhillon, Justice thomas, Louisiana, Politics, Racial gerrymander, Section 2, Section 2 vra, Supreme court, Voting rights act 

Armed individuals allegedly entered a Kent, Washington, home in the middle of the night earlier this week, but the homeowner also was armed — and opened fire. Kent is about a half hour south of Seattle.

Officers were dispatched to the residence on Hampton Way shortly before 3 a.m. Monday, KOMO-TV reported.

‘It’s just terrifying.’

The victims told officers that several armed people entered the home, the station said.

But the homeowner shot at the intruders and hit one suspect several times, KOMO noted, citing a Kent Police Department spokesperson.

The other suspects fled before officers arrived, the station said.

Police entered the home, cleared it, and began treating the wounded suspect until medics arrived and took him to Harborview Medical Center, KOMO reported.

While a K-9 team tried to find the other suspects, the station said none were located.

RELATED: ‘I didn’t have any hesitation’: Gun-toting homeowner says he spotted intruder in his house and ‘just let it fire’

“It’s just terrifying,” neighborhood resident Sarah told KOMO. “We have kids here, two schools, we’ve got a middle school, an elementary school.”

Many commenters underneath the station’s story seemed squarely behind the homeowner’s actions:

“I love starting the day with a feel good story,” one commenter said.”Too bad this was in King County,” another commenter wrote. “The homeowner will likely need to hire a lawyer and spend lots of $$. Even though this was pretty clear[ly] a justified shooting.””Excellent,” another commenter stated. “Well done, sir!””Awesome!” another commenter declared. “Too bad he didn’t drop all of them!””I love a ‘good news’ story to start off the week,” another commenter quipped.”More target practice is required,” another commenter observed.”FAFO,” another commenter stated. “YOU are the first responder.””Great job by the homeowner!!!” another commenter exclaimed. “Need more of this kind of rock-solid SELF-protection. Thank you!”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Guns, Gun rights, Shooting, Homeowner shoots intruder, Kent, Washington, Self-defense, 2nd amend., Home invasion, Armed home invasion, Crime 

The Chinese communist government stepped in to block Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta from completing a company takeover in what has been described as an extraordinary late-stage intervention.

However, the CCP preventing a U.S. company from bringing a Chinese tech firm to the U.S. comes as no shock to other analysts who say it was strange the deal was allowed to get to this stage.

‘It’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China.’

In December for $2 billion, Meta acquired Manus AI, an agentic AI that resembles chatbots like ChatGPT. However, its differentiating factor has been that Manus AI “independently plans and completes” tasks without the need for continuous prompts from the user.

The company is Chinese founded but has since settled in Singapore. This did not stop China’s National Development and Reform Commission from rejecting the acquisition, in what was labeled as a mandatory “unwinding.”

The commission reportedly said in a statement that it was prohibiting foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations. It also said that Meta’s acquisition had violated Chinese rules on foreign investment.

RELATED: This Big Tech patent tracks your brain, eyes, and body — with earbuds

Meta said on Monday, however, that it “complied fully with applicable” laws during its transaction.

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the company said in a statement. The Times also reported that Meta has described itself and Manus as being two teams that have already become “deeply integrated.”

Some experts, like Matt Bloxham from Bloomberg Intelligence, were not surprised that the Chinese government stepped in.

“Manus was originally a Chinese-founded business and reincorporated in Singapore, but it’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China, and they’re being blocked from leaving the country,” Bloxham said on Monday. “So I think clearly, you know, this is an issue about technology transfer from one superpower to another, and that’s why we’re seeing this Chinese clampdown.”

Bloxham added that in his mind it was “a little bit surprising” that the acquisition had actually been “waved through” up to this point.

RELATED: Meta is using its own employees to train AI agents for ‘everyday tasks’

Raul Ariano/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The White House provided a vague statement on Monday about protecting against foreign interference in its technology sector.

The Trump administration will “continue defending America’s leading and innovative technology sector against undue foreign interference of any sort,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, per the Washington Post.

Other features of Manus AI include interacting with a user’s browser and other software to complete tasks, with the capability of generating text and images across other user applications.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Agentic ai, Chinese communist government, Company takeover, Foreign investment, Return, White house, Technology transfer, Chatbot, Tech 

After the nation watched President Donald Trump survive the third credible assassination attempt against him on Saturday, many people have begun wondering what exactly is going on with his security detail, the Secret Service.

For what is thought to be the most elite security detail that protects arguably the most important — and the most targeted — man on the planet, there seems to be an astronomically high number of “security failures,” and that doesn’t count the many other threats against Trump.

‘When the lights came on, a neatly dressed young man, a complete stranger, was standing next to FDR.’

However, a look back at history reveals a remarkable pattern of “failures” to secure the president’s person — even aside from the successful assassinations of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865, James Garfield on July 2, 1881, and William McKinley on September 14, 1901.

RELATED: Secret Service accused of trying to ‘cover up’ motorcade accident involving VP Kamala Harris

Trump Campaign Office/Handout/Anadolu/Getty Images

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most remarkable security breaches since the beginning of the 20th century — after the president’s security team supposedly “got serious.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Not long after the assassination of his predecessor, President McKinley, President Theodore Roosevelt found himself in harm’s way. As the story goes, according to Andrew Tully’s book “Treasury Agent: The Inside Story,” a man wearing a top hat, white tie, and tails told an usher at the White House that President Roosevelt was expecting him. Though he did not recognize the man’s name or expect a visitor, Roosevelt agreed to meet with him in the Red Room. After a few minutes of speaking with the man, Roosevelt summoned the chief usher and told him to “take this crank out of here.”

The man was searched after his meeting with the president and was found with a revolver in his back pocket.

Famously, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest while running for re-election in 1912, three years after he left office, but he went on to deliver a speech as planned. However, the Secret Service did not start protecting major presidential candidates on the campaign trail until 1968, so they cannot be blamed for this incident.

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft’s presidency saw what could be described as a more violent threat at the White House. Illinois’ the Day Book reported in 1912 that a man identified as Michael Winter, supposedly a German, was arrested “after twice forcing his way into the private part of the executive mansion.” According to the Day Book, he reached the White House, “ran swiftly up the steps, dashed past the doorkeeper, and for a moment was lost in the darkness of the hall.”

The man, who was later deemed “mentally incompetent” and booked in an asylum as “harmless,” explained that he had been twice denied an introduction to President Taft by German Ambassador to the U.S. Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, but insisted on meeting with him without further explanation: “I want to see the president. I must see him.”

Winter was carrying a long blade with a guard to protect the hand “in case it were used as a weapon.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Though the Secret Service surely learned from these mistakes and beefed up its security measures in the following decades, “slip-ups still occurred,” Margaret Truman, President Harry Truman’s daughter, wrote in her book, “The President’s House: The Secrets and History of the World’s Most Famous Home.“

In her book, Margaret Truman recounts an almost unbelievable snafu in the FDR White House that is worth quoting in full:

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s oldest son, Jimmy, tells a story that the Secret Service would rather forget. One night during World War II, he was home on leave and joined his parents at the White House for dinner. Afterward they watched a movie. When the lights came on, a neatly dressed young man, a complete stranger, was standing next to FDR.

Instead of brandishing a weapon, however, the interloper asked for the president’s autograph. Somehow, apparently for a lark, he had gotten past the doormen and the Secret Service to penetrate the heart of the house. FDR gave him the autograph and the embarrassed Secret Service men escorted him to the door.

Richard Nixon

In 1974, Army private Robert K. Preston stole a military helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, and led two police helicopters on more than an hour-long chase around the D.C. area. He reportedly hovered near the Washington Monument before flying close to the White House. Police shot the helicopter, forcing Preston to land on the White House lawn, where he was tackled and placed under arrest.

Preston was reportedly upset about being a “washout from Army flight training,” as the Associated Press reported at the time.

New York Magazine reported that Preston’s flight was partially successful, however. Officers described his flying as “masterful.”

Gerald Ford

The White House was understandably upset with the Secret Service after Gerald Bryan Gainous Jr. was able to gain access to the White House grounds a total of four times between 1975 and 1976. And it somehow gets worse: Two of those incidents occurred within the span of 10 days.

The New York Times reported at the time that the White House ordered an immediate report from the Secret Service on how Gainous was able to breach the perimeter on the night of November 26 and again during the day on December 6, 1974. On the first occasion, the intruder “spent two hours lurking about the grounds and came within five feet of the president’s daughter, Susan, before being apprehended.”

Gainous allegedly told police that he was “trying to see the president to seek a pardon for his father, an Air Force sergeant convicted of smuggling drugs.”

Ronald Reagan

A New York Times report from January 31, 1985, detailed a White House intrusion in which a man, identified as Robert Latta, was able to “slip into the White House last Sunday and roam around, unchecked, for 14 minutes.”

A representative, who shares the intruder’s surname but bears no relation to him, explained the strange way the man was able to access the supposedly secure perimeter of the White House:

I understand that a Robert Allen Latta was arrested and charged with unlawful entry at the White House during the inaugural activities. The Secret Service informed me that he had entered the White House with the Marine Corps Band. A court date is set for March 5. He is not a relative of mine, and he is from Denver, Colo. By coincidence I do have a son, Robert Edward, who is an attorney and lives in Bowling Green, Ohio.

George W. Bush

On April 9, 2006, Brian Lee Patterson, a New Mexico man who said he had “intelligence information for the president” and claimed that his “family is being poisoned in New Mexico,” ran “well inside” the White House perimeter before being apprehended by officers, according to a CNN report at the time of the incident.

His incursion onto the White House lawn was his fourth time jumping the White House fence.

Barack Obama

According to a CNN report, two uninvited guests, identified by the Washington Post as Tareq and Michaele Salahi, were able to gain access to President Obama’s first White House state dinner on November 24, 2009.

The couple was able to get close enough for photos with then-Vice President Joe Biden and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, photos which Michaele Salahi reportedly posted on Facebook after the event.

During his congressional testimony regarding the incident, Mark J. Sullivan, the director of the United States Secret Service at the time, said that “a mistake was made”:

In our line of work, we cannot afford even one mistake. In this particular circumstance, two individuals, who should have been prohibited from passing through a checkpoint and entering the grounds, were allowed to proceed to the magnetometers and other levels of screening before they were then allowed to enter the White House. Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, their entry into the White House is unacceptable and indefensible.

Another event during the Obama administration deserves mentioning. On November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired a rifle at the residential wing of the White House at least seven or eight times, according to multiple reports. One bullet struck a bulletproof window on the second floor, steps away from the first family’s formal living room. Another got stuck in a window frame, and others bounced off the roof, sending debris to the ground.

Although a tip led to the arrest of Ortega-Hernandez at a hotel in Indiana, Pennsylvania, five days later, the Washington Post reported some remarkable, previously unreported details about the incident.

According to the Post, Secret Service officers “initially rushed to respond.” Snipers on the roof, standing only 20 feet away from where one of the bullets struck, were searching for signs of an attack.

However, the officers soon received a surprising order: “No shots have been fired. … Stand down.” The loud sounds were attributed to a backfire from a nearby construction vehicle, contrary to CNN’s report that the officers thought that there were gunshots but that they believed the shots were gang-related and not directed at the White House.

It took the Secret Service four days to discover that the White House had been shot at multiple times, and that discovery “came about only because a housekeeper noticed broken glass and a chunk of cement on the floor.”

President Obama and first lady Michelle were not in Washington at the time, though their daughter Sasha and Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, were inside the residence, and Malia was expected to return around the time that the shooting occurred.

Donald Trump

While many people are able to recount the assassination attempts on July 13, 2024, by Thomas Matthew Crooks; September 15, 2024, by Ryan Routh; and April 25, 2026, allegedly by Cole Tomas Allen, President Trump has faced other security threats that should have been prevented much more quickly than they were.

For example, on March 10, 2017, a man identified as Jonathan T. Tran breached the White House grounds and roamed around for 15 minutes before he was arrested by Secret Service agents just steps from the main door. He was reportedly carrying a backpack with mace and a letter for President Trump. According to a CNN report, two Secret Service agents were fired over the handling of the incident.

President Trump was at the residence at the time of the fence-hopping incident.

More recently on February 22, 2026, an armed man was able to breach the perimeter of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The man, identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, was carrying a shotgun and a fuel can.

He was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after they discovered him.

This is not an exhaustive list of threats against U.S. presidents in the history of the Secret Service. The USSS has successfully mitigated countless threats against presidents throughout history, yet the surprisingly consistent security breaches during these administrations may still raise some eyebrows.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Assassination attempts, Oscar ramiro ortegahernandez, Politics, President trump, Presidential protection, Presidential security measures, Robert latta, Secret service, Security detail, Security failures, Theodore roosevelt, Threats against trump, White house, White house intrusion, White house lawn, White house state dinner