CNN reports the federal judge overseeing the White House Correspondent’ Dinner gunman matter is already losing patience with President Donald Trump’s prosecution team.
Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya “privately admonished” prosecutors for attempting to grandstand Thursday at a detention hearing for accused gunman Cole Tomas Allen, according to a transcript obtained by CNN.
“I don’t know what’s going on here. I know that you want to present your case, I guess, to some audience other than the Court,” Upadhyaya told three prosecutors in the courtroom on Thursday out of earshot of the public and press. “I don’t want this to turn into a circus.”
Washington DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — a former Fox News host with a storied history of bombastic presentations, as well as a spotty prosecution streak — has used television interviews about the shooting to deliver extra claims “and give more definitive descriptions of the shooting than the detail that’s been represented in court from the FBI and Justice Department line prosecutors,” reports CNN.
“Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran on Thursday said Allen shot an officer at point-blank range. Pirro said on Fox News Thursday he fired at the Secret Service officer. Court filings describing the events have been less definitive,” reports CNN.
The judge appears wary of the passionate Pirro and her people mining the court for theatre. For example, at the Thursday hearing, prosecutors were prepared and eager to present the court with new video and photos they had of the shooting, of Allen’s weapons and of the hotel crime scene. But Upadhyaya stopped them from unloading this info in court “because it was not needed after Allen’s lawyers said he agreed to remain detained while he awaited trial,” she ruled.
“Appearing annoyed,” CNN reports the judge then called the prosecutors and defense team to the bench to speak with them privately, where the judge continued to call out the Justice Department’s overly enthusiastic approach.