Bluesky User Warned Shooting Suspect About 2025 Election Theories

Law enforcement is reviewing a Bluesky account named "ColdForce" for potential ties to Cole Allen, charged with firing shots at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 25, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Officials state that Allen traveled from California to D.C. by train, bypassed security at the Washington Hilton, and shot a Secret Service agent who survived, before being subdued.

Allen had booked a hotel room more than two weeks in advance and used open-source media to track movements ahead of the event, according to a motion for pretrial detention filed on April 26, 2026. Allen faces charges of attempted assassination and gun-related offenses, with a potential sentence of up to life in prison if convicted.

An FBI agent stated in an April 28, 2026, affidavit that Allen used the moniker "cold force" across multiple online accounts. The Bluesky account shared personal details matching Allen's, including educational background and a name used in a pre-attack manifesto, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation based on archived posts.

In a February 22, 2025, exchange on Bluesky, a user with the handle "@aurelius2k5" responded to "ColdForce" after the account questioned whether there was precedent for military action in cases of alleged illegitimate elections involving the president and Congress.

The replying user stated that the election was won fairly and warned that pursuing stolen election theories entered territory similar to that of January 6, 2021, Capitol riot participants. "ColdForce" countered by citing administration actions and arguing there were no grounds to assume the win was fair.

“He won fair and square. Repulsive as that thought is, it’s reality. Drifting off into stolen election theories puts you into J6 rioter mental illness territory. We have to deal with facts as they are." — Bluesky user @aurelius2k5 "ColdForce" continued by noting that the legitimacy of the election could affect the validity of orders and referenced the fallacy of assuming such events could not occur in the U.S. The account had previously posted in December 2024 about America being created by political violence. Officials are analyzing Allen's digital footprint to determine motivations, as reported by The New York Times and CNN.”

The charges against Allen have heightened concerns about political violence in the U.S., following two attempts on a political figure's life in Pennsylvania and Florida in 2024, and the September 2024 murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.

Officials described Allen's justification for actions as dangerous and without bounds, stating in their motion that if successful, the act would have marked one of the darkest days in American history. An attorney for Allen and a prosecutor did not respond to requests for comment, and the Bluesky user @aurelius2k5 could not be reached.