WASHINGTON — A man who tried to drive a U-Haul truck through the White House fence last year did so 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,” according to his guilty plea entered in court Monday.

Sai Varshith Kandula, a 20-year-old resident of St. Louis, Missouri entered the guilty plea for the willful injury or depredation of United States Property.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the young man planned the attack for several weeks and even tried to hire 25 armed guards and an armored convoy in Virginia. He also tried to find a bigger truck.

Kandula’s plea agreement states he purposefully crashed into the White House barriers because he was attempting to get inside and, “seize political power.”

Court records filed in the case state Kandula took a one-way commercial flight from Missouri to Dulles International Airport on May 22, 2023.

He landed shortly after 5 p.m., rented the truck by 6:30, grabbed food and gas before he drove to H Street in Northwest D.C., according to court documents.

Kandula then drove onto the sidewalk as people walking ran to get out of the way, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He hit the barriers once, then put the truck in reverse and hit them again, which caused the vehicle to smoke and leak fluids.

According to court documents:

“Kandula next exited the vehicle and went to the back of the truck. From a backpack he removed a flag, a three-by-five foot red-and-white banner with a Nazi Swastika in the center, and brandished it. U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Secret Service officers arrested Kandula at the scene and took him into custody.”

A witness to the crime told 7News last year, “About 20 seconds past walking through I just heard this loud crash... I had headphones on so I wasn’t the most observant and I looked behind and this huge U-haul van was just there on the sidewalk.”

Kandula told investigators, “he would have arranged for the killing of the U.S. President and others if necessary to achieve his objective.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Kandula in August.

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