The White House intruder claimed to be President Trump's friend with information on Russian hackers

President Trump walks outside the White House
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

The intruder arrested on White House grounds late Friday night while carrying a backpack containing mace has been identified as a California man named Jonathan Tran, age 26. Tran has been charged with entering restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon and faces 10 years in prison. He has a court hearing Monday and is presently held without bail.

When apprehended, Tran said he was a friend of President Trump and was found with a letter in which the Secret Service said he "mentioned Russian hackers and said he had information of relevance. Tran alleged that he had been followed, and his 'phone and email communications [were] read by third parties,' and that he had 'been called schizophrenic.'"

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.