A man carrying ammunition and with a gun in his vehicle was arrested on Sunday at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course after appearing to monitor security preparations before Trump’s fundraiser there on Tuesday, authorities said.
Mr Taele’s troubling behaviour at the president’s public golf course merely days before the president was expected to arrive raised serious red flags
— Patrick Grandy, FBI’s Los Angeles office assistant director,
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department said Jeanine John Taele, 38, took photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket. A search of his pickup truck in the golf course parking lot turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read “security protection agent”, according to the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Law enforcement searched his home in the nearby city of Downey on Monday and found a rifle and other firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armour and notebooks with “concerning statements”, federal authorities said. No details about the statements were released.
The sheriff’s department announced the arrest as Trump was preparing to arrive for the Republican National Committee dinner on Tuesday at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Los Angeles.
“Mr Taele’s troubling behaviour at the president’s public golf course merely days before the president was expected to arrive raised serious red flags for law enforcement,” Patrick Grandy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement. “There is no room for error, particularly in light of previous attempts on President Trump’s life.”
Last year a jury found a man guilty of trying to assassinate Trump at the president’s Florida country club. And while a candidate in 2024, Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a shooter on a roof at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Before Tuesday’s event, federal agents conducted a security assessment last Friday at the Trump course near Los Angeles. A person later identified as Taele was seen walking throughout the course, wore an earpiece and took photographs and videos of federal agents’ activities, authorities said.
Taele drove away but then returned to the course on Sunday. He approached federal agents and said he was employed by the state department and was there for a security detail. Taele said he had a loaded weapon in his vehicle and was arrested after it was searched, according to federal officials.
Taele was charged with several felonies, including second-degree robbery, receiving a large-capacity magazine and possession of a short-barrelled rifle or shotgun. He was also charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanour.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges on Monday and was ordered to stay away from the golf course and not possess weapons. His bail was set at $250,000 (about R4,110.88).
It wasn’t clear if Taele had an attorney, and family members could not immediately be reached for comment.
AP
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