Hyderabad native sentenced to 8 years for White House truck attack

Washington: Sai Varshith Kandula, a 20-year-old man from St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for attempting to attack the White House with a rented truck in May 2023. The attack, which was motivated by Nazi ideology, aimed to overthrow the U.S. government.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Varshith Kandula, a native of Chandanagar, Hyderabad, India, pleaded guilty on May 13, 2024, to willful injury to U.S. property. At the time of the attack, he was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich sentenced Varshith Kandula to 96 months in prison, in addition to three years of supervised release. The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Special Agent in Charge William McCool of the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, and FBI officials.

Court documents revealed that on May 22, 2023, Kandula flew from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., rented a truck, and drove to the White House. At approximately 9:35 p.m., he crashed into security barriers at the intersection of H Street and 16th Street. After briefly reversing, Kandula struck the barriers a second time, disabling his truck.

Kandula exited the vehicle and, carrying a Nazi flag, attempted to brandish it at the scene. He was quickly arrested by U.S. Park Police and Secret Service agents.

According to the plea agreement, Kandula intended to replace the U.S. government with a dictatorship based on Nazi ideology. He also admitted he was willing to kill the President and others to achieve this objective. His actions were aimed at intimidating the U.S. government and influencing its conduct.

The attack caused $4,322 in damages to U.S. National Park Service property, including repairs to security barriers and cleanup of fluids from the truck. Kandula had been planning the attack for weeks and had made earlier attempts to rent large trucks and arrange for armed guards.

The investigation was led by the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, U.S. Park Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex Schneider and Shehzad Akhtar.