Law enforcement officials arrested a man in possession of weapons and body armor at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-based golf course on Sunday. The arrest came days before the president was scheduled to visit.
According to Fox News, Jeanine John Taele “pleaded not guilty Tuesday to four criminal charges stemming from his arrest outside” of Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The president arrived in LA on Tuesday to speak at a Republican fundraiser event.
A local judge set Taele’s bail at $250,000 and “ordered him not to possess any weapons,” banned him from the president’s golf course, and instructed him to remain in the state while litigation remains ongoing. His next scheduled hearing is set for Aug. 26, according to the outlet.
Taele was reportedly first discovered Sunday by federal plainclothes agents as he was allegedly “walking the grounds” of Trump’s golf course. Los Angeles police say he was “taking photographs and videos and appearing to monitor security-planning activities,” according to Fox.
Lomita Sheriff’s deputies engaged Taele that afternoon, and during a search allegedly “recovered a 16-round magazine loaded with hollow-point ammunition from Taele’s pants pocket.” Law enforcement officials subsequently “recovered a loaded pistol with a round in the chamber, along with another loaded magazine containing hollow-point ammunition” upon searching his nearby vehicle.
“Taele claimed he was employed by the State Department and was at the site for a security detail,” the Fox report reads. “He was initially arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed firearm and possessing prohibited ammunition. Prosecutors later charged him with receiving a large-capacity magazine, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle and possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun.”
Upon obtaining a warrant to search Taele’s home, law enforcement officials purportedly found additional firearms, an “AR-platform upper receiver,” ammunition, radio signal devices, and several notebooks that officials said had “concerning statements.”
The incident comes on the heels of several assassination attempts against Trump by left-wing zealots.
In April, a Democrat donor and reported anti-Trump California man barged past security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in an apparent attempt to kill the president and members of his cabinet. In February, authorities shot a man for trespassing on Mar-a-Lago while in possession of a shotgun and a fuel can.
There were also two notable attempts on Trump’s life leading up to the 2024 election.
The first happened during the then-candidate’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the attempted killer’s bullet struck the president’s ear. Another attempt occurred months later when “Ryan Routh was arrested (and later sentenced to life in prison) for hiding out near Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle, intent on assassinating then-candidate Trump,” as The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman reported.
