A 20-year-old Indian youth’s alleged attempt to attack the White House with a rented truck to overthrow and replace the democratically elected U.S. government with a Nazi inspired dictatorship, has earned him 8 years in jail.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, of St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced Jan 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. for the alleged attempted attack
on May 22, 2023, according to Justice department press release. At the time of the incident, Kandula an Indian national born in Chandanagar, India, was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card.
READ: Who is Sai Varshith Kandula, the man who drove vehicle into a security barrier near White House (May 26, 2023)
Kandula pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to a charge of willful injury or depredation of property of the United States before U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. In addition to the prison term, Judge Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.
According to court documents, Kandula flew on a commercial flight from St. Louis, Missouri, to Washington DC on the afternoon of May 22, 2023, connecting through another airport on a one-way airline ticket.
Kandula arrived at Dulles International Airport about 5:20 p.m., and rented a truck at 6:30 p.m. He stopped for food and gas, and then drove to Washington, DC, where he crashed into the barriers protecting White House and President’s Park at 9:35 p.m. at the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest.
Kandula drove onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians running from the scene. After striking the barriers, the truck backed up in reverse, then lurched forward, striking the metal barriers a second time. The second impact disabled the truck which began smoking from the engine compartment and leaking fluids.
Kandula next exited the vehicle and went to the back of the truck. From a backpack he removed a flag, a three-by-five foot red-and-white banner with a Nazi Swastika in the center, and brandished it. U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Secret Service officers arrested Kandula at the scene and took him into custody.
According to the plea agreement, at the time Kandula crashed the truck into the White House perimeter, he was attempting to gain access to the White House to seize political power. Kandula’s intent was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship fueled by ideology of Nazi Germany and for himself to be put in charge of the United States.
Kandula admitted to investigators that he would have arranged for the killing of the U.S. President and others if necessary to achieve his objective. His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion.
Kandula planned the attack for several weeks. Prior to renting the truck and crashing it on White House grounds, he made several attempts to gain access to vehicles or armed security guards.
READ: Indian American ‘neo-nazi’ arrested for crashing security barrier near White House (May 23, 2023)
For example, on April 22, 2023, Kandula requested 25 armed guards and an armored convoy from a security company located in Virginia. On May 4, 2023, Kandula attempted to contact several other companies in an attempt to rent a large commercial tractor-trailer truck, a dump truck, or another large truck.
Kandula was unsuccessful in arraigning for security guards or a tractor-trailer truck or dump truck. Kandula had attempted to arrange for the services of these security guards and the use of large vehicles in order to carry out his offense against the U.S. Government.