Indian national who attacked White House in 2023 gets eight-year prison

Indian-origin Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, of Missouri, was sentenced on Thursday in US District Court for an attempted attack on the White House with a rented truck on May 22, 2023. 

Kandula was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison for an attempted attack on the White House that aimed to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States in order to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by “Nazi ideology”.

The sentence was announced by US Attorney Matthew Graves, Special Agent in Charge William McCool of the US Secret Service Washington Field Office, FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division, Chief Jessica Taylor of the US Park Police, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Kandula pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to a charge of willful injury or depredation of property of the United States. He is an Indian national who was born in Chandanagar, India.

At the time of the incident, he was a lawful permanent resident of the US with a green card. 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 D.C. on the afternoon of May 22, 2023, connecting through another airport on a one-way airline ticket.”

He arrived at Dulles International Airport, and rented a truck. 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 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.

Adding more to the drama, from a backpack he removed a flag, a three-by-five foot red-and-white banner with a Nazi Hakenkreuz symbol in the center, and brandished it. US Park Police and the US 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. 

His 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 US 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.

This case was investigated by the US Secret Service, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the US Park Police, and the MPD. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant US Attorney Alex Schneider and Assistant US Attorney Shehzad Akhtar.

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