A Missouri man who rammed a rental truck into a gate near the White House in an attempt to overthrow the government was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison, prosecutors said.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, from Saint-Louis, pleaded guilty In Can to one count of intentional injury or depredation of United States property during the incident on May 22, 2023. Prosecutors agreed to seek only an eight-year sentence.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said its goal was “to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States and replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology.”
“It was less a ‘plan’ than a collection of delusional thoughts connected by a common thread,” Kandula’s lawyer wrote in a sentencing memorandum. After his arrest, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the attorney wrote.
Kandula, an Indian national who was a legal permanent resident of the United States with a green card at the time, crashed a U-Haul truck into the gate at the intersection of H Street NW and 16th Street NW around 9:35 p.m. , said the prosecutor’s office. .
The truck became disabled and Kandula got out and took a flag with a Nazi swastika from his backpack before being arrested, he added.
No one was hurt.
Prosecutors wrote in their own memorandum that Kandula nearly struck two pedestrians and that an eight-year prison sentence was warranted because of the seriousness of his actions and as a deterrent.
Kandula’s attorney wrote in the sentencing memo that he would most likely be deported due to his conviction and return to India to live with his family.
