Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says the shooting near the White House over the weekend reiterates the need for President Trump’s ballroom.
Blanche, in a federal court filing on Sunday, argued the incident “underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom.”
The filing was in support of the Justice Department’s position in a lawsuit brought forth by the National Trust for Historic Preservation late last year, which seeks to block the ballroom’s construction.
The $400 million project, he wrote, would allow Trump to “perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility.”
The shooting occurred at just after 6 p.m. EDT on Saturday, when an individual pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the chief of communications for the Secret Service.
Guglielmi added that U.S. Secret Service officers returned fire and fatally struck the individual. Authorities later identified the gunman as 21-year-old Nasire Best, a figure previously observed near the White House.
One bystander was struck during the exchange between Best and the officers, while no officers sustained injuries. On Sunday, Secret Services Director Sean Curran wrote in a social media post that the agency is “hopeful” the injured bystander “will make a full recovery” from his injuries.
Trump was in the White House during the shooting, but Guglielmi noted Saturday that the incident did not impact any “protectees.”
In his filing, Blanche wrote that the shooting amounted to a “second attempted assassination” on Trump “within a single month.” A federal grand jury earlier this month indicted Cole Allen, who exchanged gunfire last month with Secret Service officers at the hotel where the president was attending the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, on charges of attempting to assassinate Trump and other firearms violations.
Prior to that shooting, Allen, 31, wrote of his plot to target administration officials. He has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges.
The acting attorney general added that the gunman in Saturday’s shooting was an “armed assassin” who opened fire “in the exact direction of the White House.” Authorities have not said publicly whether the gunman had any political motivations for firing the shots.
The ballroom has been under construction since October, when crews demolished the East Wing of the White House.
Trump has consistently touted that the ballroom venture would be funded mostly through private donors.
Following the WHCA dinner shooting, a group Senate Republicans introduced legislation to provide $1 billion in security funding from Congress for the project, a proposal the president supported. Not everyone in the party was on board — as many pushed back on using taxpayer dollars for the project.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, however, ruled earlier this month that the GOP could not include those funds in its budget reconciliation package.
On Sunday, Blanche touted the potential features of the project, which include bomb shelters, a hospital and medical facilities and military installations.
“The under construction East Wing Project, which is on time and under budget, includes state of the art security features to repel all attacks against the President, his family, his staff, and esteemed visitors,” he wrote. “These include a heavy steel, drone proof roof, missile resistant and drone proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, Military grade venting for air conditioning and heating, and much more.”
