WASHINGTON — Following the arrest of Cole Tomas Allen, who is accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald J. Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 26, federal Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh has raised concerns about Allen’s treatment as he awaits trial.
Cole Tomas Allen is facing federal assassination charges and is alleged to be the perpetrator of the April 26 attack.
Judge Sharbaugh serves as a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed to the position in October 2024 for an eight-year term.
According to an article by Solitary Watch, a nonprofit advocacy project focused on exposing the use of solitary confinement in the United States, Judge Sharbaugh said Allen has been deprived of his constitutional right to private conversations with his attorneys, has been placed in solitary confinement and “is being treated differently than anyone I’ve ever observed.”
Judge Sharbaugh said that while the charges against Allen are “extremely serious,” pretrial detention is not intended to be punitive. In the American criminal justice system, people accused of crimes are presumed innocent until proven guilty and are entitled to constitutional protections.
According to the article and Allen’s lawyers, Allen was isolated for 23 hours a day in a “bare, padded cell.” He was also placed on “suicide watch,” despite reportedly showing no suicidal tendencies. His lawyers further alleged that he was denied access to a Bible.
The assassination attempt on April 26 reinvigorated President Trump’s effort to construct a ballroom in the former East Wing. Since the attempt, Trump and congressional Republicans have accelerated efforts to fund and complete the proposed project, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal.
The treatment of the high-profile detainee Cole Tomas Allen has again brought the issue of solitary confinement into the national spotlight. In 2026, 31 incarcerated individuals successfully sued the Indiana Department of Correction over abuse in solitary confinement after allegedly being denied frequent showers and access to sunlight. New York City is also preparing to adopt a law phasing out solitary confinement on Rikers Island, a jail complex long plagued by allegations of abuse, according to the article.
Throughout President Trump’s second term, the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also remained under national scrutiny. On May 1, Cuban immigrant and detainee Denny Adán González died while in solitary confinement at the Stewart Detention Center. He was the fourth person to die at Stewart Detention Center and the 18th person to die in an ICE facility this year, according to the article.
Furthermore, the use of solitary confinement at North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan has prompted a hunger strike protesting detention conditions. Ahmad Alnajdawi, a Jordanian detainee at the facility, told reporters, “I want people outside to know, they’re treating us like animals.”
The resurgence of aggressive criminal justice policies in the federal system during President Trump’s second term has intensified debate over the ethics, logistics and legality of solitary confinement. Critics of the practice have cited the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants and federal detainees as evidence of backsliding on criminal justice reform, according to an article by the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit criminal justice reform advocacy organization.
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