Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Calif. man scales White House fence
The suspect, carrying cans of Mace and a letter, is arrested after nearing mansion’s exterior.
WASHINGTON — A California man carrying two cans of Mace and a letter to President Donald Trump about “Russian hackers” scaled a White House fence Friday night and neared an entrance to the mansion before he was arrested, according to a court document.
The suspect — identified as Jonathan Tuan-Anh Tran, 26 — made it all the way to the exterior of the White House, which he walked alongside, and then hid behind a pillar before he was spotted and apprehended near the South Portico entrance.
The court document released Saturday evening omits any reference to alarms sounding and suggests that the first realization of an intruder was when a uniformed agent saw the suspect, up to 200 yards from where he entered.
The U.S. Secret Service declined to answer questions about how the man penetrated so deep onto the White House grounds, citing an ongoing investigation.
A District of Columbia Superior Court judge ordered Tran detained through the weekend. He is expected to appear in federal court Monday. He was charged with entering restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon.
Earlier Saturday, the president said that the U.S. Secret Service did a “phenomenal job” apprehending a “troubled person.” Trump was inside the White House when the incident occurred. It was the first known security breach at the White House since he took office.
“Secret Service did a fantastic job last night,” Trump said Saturday from his golf club in Northern Virginia. He was briefed on the matter Friday night.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly also was briefed, the Secret Service said. Kelly was among several Cabinet secretaries and senior White House staff members who attended a working lunch with the president at the Trump National Golf Club.
The intrusion follows a series of security lapses during the eight years that Barack Obama was president. An especially embarrassing breach came in September 2014 when a man with mental health issues scaled a fence and made it as far into the building as the East Room before the Secret Service could apprehend him. The Obamas were not at home at the time. The incident was one of several breakdowns by the Secret Service that ultimately led to the resignation of the agency’s then-director, Julia Pierson.