White House Breach

White House Breach

  • Mar 13, 2017

A man with a backpack, mace and a letter to the President was arrested over the weekend while trying to gain entrance to the White House.

The man, identified in court documents as Jonathan T. Tran, 26 of California, told the Secret Service that he had arrived in Washington D.C. to see the President after he breached security at the White House complex and was arrested on Friday night a little before midnight.

According to surveillance footage of the incident, Tran jumped the fence on the northwest courtyard of the Treasury Building, which is adjacent to the White House. He was not detected by Secret Service until approached by a uniformed officer near the south entrance to the executive residents, officials said.

Secret Service officer Wayne Azevedo said that during a search after the arrest, “two cans of mac were found on Tran, including one in his jacket pocket. Tran was also carrying, among other things, a United States passport, an Apple laptop computer, a book written by President Trump, and a letting he had written to the President.”

Azevedo said that in the letter Tran mentioned Russian hackers and said he had information relevant to the matter. Tran alleged that he had been followed and his “phone and email communications had been read by third parties.” The letter also mentioned that Tran had been called schizophrenic.

After the incident, the White House was placed on security level, “orange,” one of the highest levels of security for the Secret Service.

The President was on the premises at the time of the breach and was alerted about the intrusion.

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