(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department claims that a neo-Nazi intentionally crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier across from the White House last year—what prosecutors say was the culmination of a six-month plan to “overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States” and “replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology.”
But in a sentencing memorandum filed in September, the lawyers for the defendant—Sai Varshith Kandula, a non-citizen from India—explained what really happened with their client, who’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
According to Kandula’s attorneys, his “plan” was “an assemblage of delusional thoughts stitched together by a common thread.”
“For about six months, phantasmic ideas whirled in Sai’s head. He jotted them down in a notebook…an archive of his impairment. According to Sai, a reptilian race had installed a puppet regime to operate the U.S.,” they said.
Kandula acted on his delusions in May 2023, driving a U-Haul into the protective posts that separate the White House grounds from the sidewalk. After that, he stepped outside with the Nazi flag that would be plastered across mainstream news outlets for the next several days. It appears as though someone besides Kandula unfurled the flag for the world to see, as pictures of his arrest still show the Nazi flag folded in half to obscure the swastika.
Remember this? Court filings include pictures of when the suspect was arrested. The flag was still crumpled up, obscuring the swastika. Sure seems like someone (I wonder who?) unfurled the flag for propaganda purposes.
BTW, did I mention this guy has been sent to a psych hospital… https://t.co/Zbx7yMBdOn pic.twitter.com/glEH9cCZK1— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 18, 2024
“He has no time to unfurl it. He lays it on the ground, along with the black bag, raises his hands over his head, and lies prostrate on the sidewalk. Two officers approach and grab his wrists. They pull his arms behind his back. Sai yelps. He says, ‘please, please don’t hurt me.’ An officer asks if he has any weapons. He says, ‘no,’” the defense attorneys recounted.
“Once in custody, an officer removed Sai from the scene. She sat him down across the street. ‘So you tried to run into the White House?’ she asked. ‘Yep,’ he said, ‘I’m gonna be the new leader of this country.’”
Despite the obvious half-baked nature of Kandula’s plans, the DOJ and mainstream media used his actions to generate anti-Trump and anti-right-wing propaganda. Even after Kandula was formally diagnosed with schizophrenia earlier this year—as first reported by Headline USA—the DOJ repeated the claims that he was a serious Nazi who threatened democracy.
“Based on Defendant Sai Varshith Kandula’s stated aim to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States, the aim to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology, and his brazen attempt to gain access to the White House by crashing a large vehicle into the barriers protecting the White House, the government requests this Court sentence him to 96 months (eight years) of imprisonment,” prosecutors said in their Sept. 6 sentencing memorandum.
Three days after the DOJ asked for eight years for Kandula, his lawyers filed a rebuttal, explaining his history of mental health issues.
“Formally, his offense meets the requirements for application of the terrorism guideline,” the defense attorneys admitted, before arguing: “But in substance, he’s no terrorist.
“He’s a 20-year-old with a serious but treatable mental illness, and a sentence of 10-16 months time-served with GPS monitoring, mandated treatment and therapy, and a requirement to reside with his parents will satisfy that which the law requires: a sentence sufficient but not greater than necessary to comply with the purposes of sentencing,” the attorneys argued.
A judge was set to weigh the opposing memorandums and sentence Kandula on Oct. 1. But instead of sentencing him, the judge found that he was having a mental health breakdown, and ordered him to undergo a psych exam.
According to an Oct. 30 joint status report from both parties, Kandula was transported by the United States Marshals Service to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina on Oct. 21.
Kandula’s evaluation period is set to be complete by Wednesday, after which he’ll return to Washington DC. He’s set to be back in DC by Dec. 28, but the presiding judge hasn’t set a new date for sentencing—presuming that’s still happening.
Kandula’s family expects him to be deported to India, regardless of the severity of his carceral sentence.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
