WASHINGTON: An intruder carrying a backpack was arrested after scaling a fence around the White House and entering the grounds, the U.S. Secret Service said on Saturday, in the latest breach of security at the president's official residence.
President Donald Trump was inside the White House when the male suspect climbed over the fence on the complex's South Grounds at 11:38 p.m. on Friday, and uniformed officers arrested him, the Secret Service said in a statement.
The suspect, identified in court documents as California resident Jonathan Tran, 26, is scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday after a judge on Saturday ordered him held without bond, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said. Trump earlier thanked the Secret Service and commended the agents for apprehending the intruder.
"Secret Service did a fantastic job," Trump told reporters at the start of a working lunch on Saturday afternoon with several Cabinet members at his golf course outside Washington. "It was a troubled person." Tran was charged with entering or remaining in restricted grounds while using or carrying a dangerous weapon, and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, said Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.