The magistrate judge who issued an apology to Cole Allen, accused of plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, for his treatment in a Washington, D.C., jail, has drawn mixed reactions. Known for his tense interactions with the Trump administration regarding the capital’s crime policy, he is also recognized for his lifelong dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
During the emergency motion hearing on Monday, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui expressed concern over Allen’s conditions, stating, “To me, it’s extremely disturbing that he was put in five-point restraints, a person with no criminal history.” He emphasized the importance of presuming Allen’s innocence.
Judge Faruqui then highlighted a comparison between Allen and individuals accused in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
“It’s troubling,” he remarked. “I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell. If the only way to keep him safe is the most punitive thing, that’s a problem.”
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui was seen speaking at an event featuring a debate between incarcerated students and James Madison University students on the topic of abolishing life without parole at the Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on November 22, 2024. (Craig Hudson/The Washington Post)
“While pardons may erase convictions, they don’t erase history,” he stated, referencing the Jan. 6 events. “They were hanging gallows outside.”
“What am I to say to Allen that this is going to be a fair process if we’re putting him in a safe cell when he’s not supposed to be in there?” Faruqui asked. “At a minimum, I should be apologizing to him. We are obligated to make sure he’s taken care of. Mr. Allen, I’m sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to.”
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Allen’s defense on Sunday filed a motion for an emergency hearing on his jail treatment, which was scheduled for Monday. Later on Sunday, they withdrew the motion when they learned that Allen was no longer in the jail’s suicide protocol, which dictated his placement in the safe cell.
Despite the withdrawal, Faruqui hauled the defense, prosecution and a Department of Corrections (DOC) attorney into court for the emergency hearing where he decried Allen’s treatment.
Antonio Hawley, a student from Brave Behind Bars, talks with Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui during a graduation event at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 8, 2022. Brave Behind Bars is an introductory computer science program for incarcerated individuals. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
Faruqui has been involved in multiple spats with the Trump administration and has a long history of spewing left-wing talking points from the bench and beyond. Here’s what we know:
Praised for commitment to DEI
The Washington Council of Lawyers wrote a letter in support of Faruqui for a potential 2023 appointment to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Judge Faruqui’s record demonstrates a deep commitment to pro bono representation, public interest law, fairness, and diversity—as well as keen analytical skills and sound judicial decision-making,” the letter says.
It later adds that he has “devoted much of his career to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” and twice cites his commitment to “criminal justice reform.”
Anti-ICE sentiment
After a Venezuelan illegal alien was arrested by masked federal agents in D.C., Faruqui slammed the Trump administration.
“I’d say we live in a surreal world right now,” Faruqui said at a court hearing for Christian Enrique Carías Torres last year, according to The Washington Post.
“This is not consistent with what I understand the United States of America to be,” he continued. “You should be treated with basic human dignity. We don’t have a secret police.”
Carías Torres crossed into the country illegally under the Biden administration in 2023 and was subject to a final order of removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Harold Cunningham receives the best speaker award from Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui as the DC Defense Coalition incarcerated team celebrates their debate victory at Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 22, 2024. (Craig Hudson/The Washington Post)
Resistance to Trump’s crime crackdown
Last August, Trump sent federal law enforcement to D.C. to assist local authorities in combatting crime. That move was met with opposition from federal grand juries, some of whom declined to prosecute cases brought before them.
The DOJ then brought the same cases in front of local grand juries. Faruqui refused to accept the local indictments in at least seven cases, and trashed the Trump administration in the process, WOUB Public Media reported.
He called Trump’s crackdown a “constitutional crisis” and said, “the rule of law is being flushed down the toilet,” according to The Washington Post.
“I am afraid right now, and that’s not what this country is founded on,” he said at the time. “What makes America great is the rule of law. … It will not, on any of the judges in this courthouse, be broken down.”
In relation to another one of the cases, Faruqui said, “it feels like some sort of bizarre nightmare,” according to Newsweek.
Trump appointee and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has often responded in kind to Faruqui’s claims.
“This judge has a long history of bending over backwards to release dangerous felons in possession of firearms and on frequent occasions he has downplayed the seriousness of felons who possess illegal firearms and the danger they pose to our community,” she said last August in reference to Faruqui.
A May 4, 2026, sketch of Cole Allen in front of Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, with attorneys present, during an emergency hearing on prison conditions. (Dana Verkouteren )
Shortly after, she said he “has allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment.”
In a news conference from last September, Pirro slammed Faruqui again, after he said her office has no credibility.
“It’s not fair to say they’re losing credibility. We’re past that now,” Faruqui said, later adding, “There’s no credibility left.”
“Judge Faruqui has never really met someone with an illegal gun that he hasn’t found some compassion for,” Pirro said in a response to a reporter who asked about Faruqui’s assertion that her office has lost all credibility.
“I’m not into going back and forth with judges,” she said. “I was a judge. That’s not what I did as a judge. So, we need to leave politics out of it. I’ll do my job. He should do his job as a judge and leave politics out of it.
Relaxed bail policies
In 2022, Faruqui joined the D.C. Rotary Club via Zoom where he told the audience about himself and his background, and participated in a brief question-and-answer session.
His personal biography was replete with references to his minority status and growing up in Baltimore as the son of Pakistani immigrants.
During the question-and-answer session, he was asked whether cash bonds should be eliminated, a pet cause of the political left.
“We try not — we should not — incarcerate poverty, right?” he said. “We incarcerate based on the presumption, in certain cases of detention when there is a crime for which someone is presumed to be detained, but they still have an opportunity to show not.”
He described the fact that there is no cash bond in the federal system as “frustrating.”
Cole Allen seen in a hotel room before the alleged Trump assassination attempt during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. (Justice Department)
“For better or for worse, we do not have cash bond [in the federal system],” he said. “I think the idea again, is that someone who’s presumed innocent, we do not want to bring into that — we’ve already appointed them counsel if they can’t afford it — we don’t want to make a barrier to their release when the law directs release based on income issues and concerns about income equity.”
He continued, saying that in D.C. and most other federal courts they focus on conditioned releases.
“So, removing internet access is something that we do. Having a third-party custodian there 24/7, you know, using Ring cameras to see who’s coming into the house, you know, removing bedroom doors so someone doesn’t have any privacy in the house. Finding ways to incarcerate people at home and home incarceration instead of having direct financial burdens and other ways to make sure they are still keeping the community safe but allowing them to be outside of incarceration while presumed innocent.”
Faruqui also supports community justice.
He explained that often, he’ll bring family members and neighbors of a suspect to ask how they’ll support the suspect if the suspect is released on bail.
A photo of Cole Allen in a graduation gown and cap from 2025. (Cole Allen/LinkedIn)
“It’s not as simple as a sort of mathematical equation, two plus two is four,” he said. “We’re not getting that. We’re getting art, right, and we’re trying to see that and everyone views art differently, and I bring my life experiences to bear when I am trying to make predictive decisions,” he said.
“I’ve been constantly amazed by the sacrifices people are willing to make for not just their immediate family, but for friends and neighbors as well,” he said.
Faruqui was appointed to be a federal magistrate judge on Sept. 14, 2020, after 12 years as a federal prosecutor in St. Louis and D.C. Before that, he was a litigation associate at a private law firm. He graduated from Georgetown University Law.
Typically, magistrate judges do not try felony cases, but will handle pre-trial matters brought before the court.
Faruqui’s office did not return a request for comment.
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