Missouri man sentenced in attempted White House attack with U-Haul truck

Missouri man faces nearly a decade in prison after attempting 2023 attack on the white house with a rented box truck.

Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, from St. Louiswas sentenced Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court to eight years in federal prison for an attempted attack on the White House with a rented U-Haul truck on May 22, 2023.

The attack “aimed at overthrowing the democratically elected government of the United States and replacing it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology,” according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC.

Charges filed against driver of U-Haul truck that crashed near White House

Kandula pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to one count of intentional injury or depredation of property of the USA Before United States 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 citizen, according to authorities. At the time of the incident, he was a legal permanent resident of the United States with a green card.

According to court documents, Kandula flew on a commercial flight from St. Louis to Washington, D.C.May 22, 2023, connecting through another airport on a one-way airline ticket.

Kandula arrived at Dulles International Airport just before 5:30 p.m., rented a truck at 6:30 p.m., and drove to Washington, D.C., where he crashed into barriers protecting the White House and President Park.

The accident occurred just after 9:30 pm at the intersection of H Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest.

It drove onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians running, according to authorities. After hitting the barriers, the truck reversed, then lurched forward, hitting the metal barriers a second time.

The second impact disabled the truck, which began smoking from the engine compartment and leaking fluid, authorities said. He got out, went to the back of the truck and pulled out a big red and white flag with a swastika in the center and began to shake it.

U-Haul truck crashes into barriers near White House, suspect in custody, authorities say

U.S. police and Secret Service officers arrested Kandula, according to the attorney’s office.

At the time of the crash, he was attempting 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 a dictatorship fueled by (the) ideology of Nazi Germany and for him to take over the United States,” according to the statement.

Kandula planned the attack for several weeks, according to authorities. Before renting the truck and crashing it on White House grounds, he made several attempts to gain access to vehicles or armed security guards.

On April 22, 2023, Kandula unsuccessfully requested 25 armed guards and an armored convoy from a Virginia security company, 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 security guards and the use of large vehicles to carry out his crime against the United States government,” authorities said. “Their actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of the government by intimidation or coercion.”

He admitted to investigators that he would have arranged the assassination of the former president Joe Biden and others, if necessary, to achieve their objective, the authorities said.

Click here to get the Fox News app

The crash caused $4,322 in damage to the National Park Service, according to prosecutors. The total cost included repairing the metal bollard barriers to their original condition and ensuring structural soundness, removing oil and chemicals, cleaning up the spill, and removing liquids from the crashed U-Haul.

The case was investigated by the Secret Service, the FBI Washington Field Office, the United States Park Police and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department.