HYDERABAD: Sai Varshith Kandula, a youth with origins in Chandanagar, Hyderabad, has been sentenced to 96 months in prison in the US for attempting to carry out an attack on the White House in Washington.
The 20-year-old, who resides in St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced by the US District Court to 96 months in federal prison for his attempted attack on May 22, 2023, using a rented truck.
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His intent was to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States and replace it with a dictatorship driven by Nazi ideology.
On January 16, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia provided details of Kandula’s sentencing.
The sentence was announced by US Attorney Matthew M. 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 M. Taylor of the US Park Police, and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Kandula had pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to a charge of willful injury or depredation of property belonging to the United States before US District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. Kandula, an Indian national born in Chandanagar, India, was a lawful permanent resident of the US with a green card at the time of the incident.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.
According to court documents, Kandula flew from St. Louis, Missouri, to Washington, D.C., on May 22, 2023, using a one-way airline ticket. He arrived at Dulles International Airport at approximately 5.20pm and rented a truck at 6.30pm
After stopping for food and gas, he drove to Washington, D.C., where, at 9.35pm, he crashed into barriers protecting the White House and President’s Park at the intersection of H Street, Northwest, and 16th Street, Northwest.
Kandula drove onto the sidewalk, causing pedestrians to flee. After hitting the barriers, the truck reversed before ramming the barriers a second time. The second collision disabled the truck, causing it to emit smoke from the engine compartment and leak fluids.
After exiting the vehicle, Kandula retrieved a three-by-five-foot red-and-white flag featuring a Nazi swastika from his backpack and brandished it. US Park Police and US Secret Service officers arrested Kandula at the scene and took him into custody.
As per the plea agreement, Kandula’s actions were an attempt to gain access to the White House to seize political power. His intent was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship inspired by Nazi Germany, with himself as its leader. Kandula admitted to investigators that he was prepared to arrange for the assassination of the US President and others, if necessary, to achieve his goals. His actions were calculated to influence or coerce government conduct.
Kandula’s actions caused $4,322 in damages to the National Park Service, including the cost of repairing the metal barriers, ensuring their structural integrity, and cleaning up oil and other fluids spilled from the crashed truck. The damaged property belonged to the National Park Service, an agency of the US Department of the Interior.
The investigation revealed that Kandula had planned the attack for weeks. Before renting the truck, he made several attempts to acquire vehicles or armed security guards. On April 22, 2023, he requested 25 armed guards and an armored convoy from a security company in Virginia. On May 4, 2023, he tried contacting other companies to rent a large commercial tractor-trailer, dump truck, or similar vehicle. Despite his efforts, Kandula was unable to secure security guards or large vehicles for his plan.
The 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, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
