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

A Missouri man is facing nearly a decade of jail time after attempting a 2023 attack on the White House with a rented box truck.

Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, of St. Louis, was 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 May 22, 2023.

The attack “aimed to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States in order 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.

CHARGES FILED AGAINST DRIVER OF U-HAUL TRUCK THAT CRASHED NEAR WHITE HOUSE 

Kandula pleaded guilty 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, 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 U.S. 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 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 scurrying, according to authorities. After striking the barriers, the truck backed up, 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 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 center and started waving it.

U-HAUL TRUCK CRASHES INTO BARRIERS 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 attempting to gain access to the White House to seize political power, according to the plea agreement. 

“Kandula’s intent was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship fueled by [the] ideology of Nazi Germany and for himself to be put in charge of the United States,” according to the statement. 

Kandula planned the attack for several weeks, according to authorities. 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. 

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, a dump truck or another large 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,” officials said. “His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion.”

He admitted to investigators that he would have arranged for the killing of former President Joe Biden and others, if necessary, to achieve his objective, authorities noted.

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, oil and chemical removal, spill cleanup and disposal of fluids from the crashed U-Haul.

The case was investigated by the Secret Service, the FBI’s Washington field office, the U.S. Park Police and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.