A Missouri man faces nearly a decade in prison after attempting to carry out an attack in 2023 on The white house with a hired mailbox.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 20 years old, from Sthe was sentenced on January 16 in US District Court to eight years in federal prison for the May 22, 2023, attempt to attack the White House in a rented U-Haul truck.
The attack “was intended to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology,” the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, said in a statement.
Sai Varshith Kandula was arrested and charged after crashing into a barrier in Lafayette Square in May 2023. (Chris Zaboji/Locla News X/TMX)
COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST U-HAUL TRUCK DRIVER WHO TRIED AT THE WHITE HOUSE
On May 13, 2024, Kandula pleaded guilty to willful injury or destruction of property. United States before US District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. In addition to the prison term, Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.
Kandula is an Indian citizen, authorities say. At the time of the incident, he was a legal permanent resident of the US with a green card.
According to court documents, Kandula was flying on a commercial flight from St Washington, DCMay 22, 2023, with a transfer via another airport on a one-way air ticket.
The White House in Washington, DC (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Kandula arrived at Dulles International Airport shortly before 5:30 p.m., rented a truck at 6:30 p.m., and drove to Washington, DC, where he crashed into the barriers protecting the White House and President’s Park.
The accident happened shortly after 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest.
He drove onto the sidewalk, prompting pedestrians to rush over, according to authorities. After hitting the barriers, the truck went backwards and then lurched forward, hitting the metal barriers a second time.
The second impact disabled the truck, which started smoking from the engine compartment and leaking fluid, officials said. He got out, went to the back of the truck and pulled out a large red and white flag from swastika in the center and started waving it.
U-HAUL TRUCK CRASHES INTO BARRIER NEAR WHITE HOUSE Suspect in custody, officials say
U.S. Park Police and Secret Service officers arrested Kandula, according to the attorney’s office.
At the time of the crash, he was trying to gain access to the White House to seize political power, according to the plea agreement.
“Kandula’s intention was to replace the democratically elected government with an instigated dictatorship [the] the ideology of Nazi Germany and to be placed at the head of the United States,” the statement said.
US Park Police and Secret Service officers arrested Kandula. (iStock)
Kandula had been planning the attack for several weeks, according to authorities. He made several attempts to reach the vehicle or armed security guards before he rented the truck and crashed it on the White House grounds.
On April 22, 2023, Kandula unsuccessfully requested 25 armed guards and an armored convoy from a security company in Virginia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A few weeks later, on May 4, 2023, he attempted to contact several other companies in an attempt to rent a large commercial truck with a trailer, dump truck, or other large truck.
“Kandula attempted to arrange the services of these security guards and the use of large vehicles to carry out his crime against the US government,” officials said. “His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of the government through intimidation or coercion.”
Kandula told investigators that he would have organized the assassination of former President Joe Biden. (Associated Press, file)
He admitted to the investigators that he would have organized the assassination of the former president Joe Biden and others, if necessary, to achieve his goal, the authorities noted.
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According to prosecutors, the accident caused $4,322 in damages to the National Park Service. The total cost included repairing the metal bollard barriers to their original condition and ensuring structural strength, removing oil and chemicals, cleaning up spills and disposing of fluids from the crashed U-Haul.
The case was investigated by the Secret Service, the FBI Washington Field Office, the U.S. Park Police and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department.
