The man who managed to get quite close to the White House on Friday after hopping a fence and briefly wandering the grounds has been identified as 26-year-old Jonathan Tran of Milpitas. Tran had apparently traveled to D.C. after recently being laid off from his job at an electrical engineering firm, according to his brother Brian Tran who spoke to CNN, and Tran had been "troubled" since the layoff.
Tran's brother also said he had been living out of his car recently.
Tran was allegedly seen on surveillance footage hopping a fence on the next-door grounds of the Treasury Building and then onto the White House grounds, as CBS 5 reports, at 11:40 p.m. Friday. When he was spotted and asked by a Secret Service agent if he was a pass-holder, Tran reportedly said "No, I am a friend of the President." Then when the agent asked how he got onto the grounds he said, "I jumped the fence."
According to CNN, Tran was carrying a backpack and two cans of mace, one in his jacket pocket. He was also carrying a book written by President Trump and a letter for the president.
In the official complaint filed against Tran, Secret Service officer Wayne Azevedo said "in the letter, Tran mentioned Russian hackers and said he had information of relevance. Tran alleged that he had been followed, and his 'phone and email communications [had been] read by third parties,' and that he had 'been called schizophrenic.'"
The president was in the White House at the time of the intrusion, and when he was asked for comment on Saturday at a lunch meeting with cabinet officials at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, Trump said, "The service did a fantastic job," adding "It was a troubled person. It was very sad."
This was the first breach of the White House compound since Trump took office in January, and one law enforcement analyst tells CNN this breach had the potential to be "catastrophic," and the fact that Tran was able to jump two fences without being detected was very troubling.
Update: As the Associated Press reports, Tran has been charged with entering restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon, and he is scheduled to appear in court Monday for a bond hearing. He could be facing as much as 10 years in prison.
Previously: Trump Administration On The Way To Derailing Entire High-Speed Rail Project