Suspect Identified in Trump Campaign Office Break-in

UPDATE Aug 14, 2024 6:05 PM CDT

The sheriff's office in Loudoun County, Virginia, says it has identified the man seen on surveillance video breaking into a Trump campaign office on Sunday. In a news release Wednesday, the sheriff's office said it has issued an arrest warrant for Toby Shane Kessler, 39, of no fixed address. After the break-in, the sheriff's office released video of a suspect with a backpack inside the office in Ashburn, a Washington, DC, suburb, CNN reports. The sheriff's office said Kessler, "appears to have left nothing behind, and it is still unclear what, if anything, he took with him."

Aug 13, 2024 8:49 AM CDT

Authorities in a suburb of Washington, DC, are looking for a man who reportedly broke into a campaign office for former President Trump. Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said it was alerted to a burglary at the campaign office in Ashburn, Virginia, which also serves as the headquarters for the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee, around 9pm Sunday but the suspect had fled by the time authorities arrived, per Politico and ABC News. The sheriff's office released images of the suspect taken from surveillance video. They show an adult man inside the building wearing dark clothing and a dark cap and carrying a tan-colored backpack on his chest. The backpack "appears to be partially full," per the Washington Post.

The sheriff's office didn't say whether anything was taken. "We are determined to identify the suspect, investigate why it happened, and determine what may have been taken as well as what may have been left behind," Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a Monday statement, noting "it is rare to have the office of any political campaign or party broken into." A rep added "there would not have been an awful lot of people" at the remote campaign office on a Sunday evening, per the Post. Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Rich Anderson said he was only told "an intruder had somehow made his way in." (The report follows the Trump campaign's claim that it was hacked by Iran.)