A Missouri man faces nearly a decade in prison after attempting a 2023 attack on the White House with a rented box truck.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, of St. Louiswas sentenced in U.S. District Court on January 16 to eight years in federal prison for attempting to attack the White House with a rented U-Haul truck May 22, 2023.
The attack “was intended to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C.
Sai Varshith Kandula was arrested and charged after hitting a barrier at Lafayette Square in May 2023. (Chris Nate/Locla News X/TMX)
Charges filed against the driver of the U-Haul truck that crashed near the White House
Kandula pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to a charge of malicious wounding or depredation of property of the United States Before U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. In addition to the prison sentence, Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.
Kandula is an Indian national, according to authorities. At the time of the incident, he was a lawful permanent resident of the US with a green card.
According to court documents, Kandula flew on a commercial flight from St. Louis to Washington, DCMay 22, 2023, connecting through another airport on a one-way ticket.
The White House in Washington, DC (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Kandula arrived at Dulles International Airport just before 5:30 PM, rented a truck at 6:30 PM and drove to Washington, D.C., where he crashed into the barriers protecting the White House and President’s Park.
The crash happened just after 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest.
He drove onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians rushing toward authorities. After hitting the barriers, the truck retreated and then pitched forward, hitting the metal barriers a second time.
The second impact disabled the truck, which began 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 with A swastika in the middle and started swinging it.
U-Haul truck crashes into barriers near White House, suspect in custody, officials say
US 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.
“Kandula’s intention was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship fueled by (the) ideology of Nazi Germany and put him in charge of the United States,” the statement said.
US Park Police and Secret Service Officers arrested Kandula. (Istock)
Kandula planned the attack for several weeks, according to authorities. Before renting the truck and crashing it on the White House grounds, he made several attempts to gain access to vehicles or armed guards.
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. Weeks later, on May 4, 2023, he attempted to contact several other companies in an attempt to rent a large commercial tractor-trailer truck, dump truck, or other large truck.
“Kandula had attempted to arrange the services of these guards and the use of large vehicles to carry out his offense against the US government,” officials said. “His actions were calculated to influence or influence the conduct of the government through intimidation or coercion.”
Kandula told investigators that he allegedly arranged to kill former President Joe Biden. (Associated Press, file)
He admitted to investigators that he might have arranged for the killing of former president Joe Biden and others, as necessary, to achieve its objective, authorities noted.
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The crash caused $4,322 in damage to the National Park Service, according to prosecutors. The total cost includes repairing the metal bollard barriers to their original condition and ensuring structural soundness, oil and chemical removal, leak cleaning and fluid removal from the crashed U-Haul.
The case was investigated by the Secret Service, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the US Park Police and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
