Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a campaign rally in Atlanta, Aug. 3, 2024. A man carrying a backpack broke into a Trump campaign office outside Washington on Sunday night, Aug. 12, in what is being investigated as a burglary, according to the local sheriff’s office in Virginia. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
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A man carrying a backpack broke into a Trump campaign office outside Washington, D.C., on Sunday night in what is being investigated as a burglary, according to the local sheriff’s office in Virginia.
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The man, wearing dark clothes and a dark baseball cap, entered the campaign office in Ashburn, Virginia, around 9 p.m., when the office was otherwise empty, according to the Loudoun County sheriff’s office.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, Thomas A. Julia, said Tuesday that investigators had a “pretty good lead,” but it was unclear if anything had been stolen after the man forced his way into the office. “We don’t know what, if anything, was removed,” he said.
The sheriff’s office released surveillance video images of a man with a backpack strapped across his chest and asked the public for help identifying him. Julia said the office expected to provide an update later Tuesday.
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The break-in came less than three months before Election Day in a presidential campaign that has been roiled by an assassination attempt against Trump and a possible cyberattack on his campaign.
The county sheriff, Michael L. Chapman, described the incident as unusual.
“It is rare to have the office of any political campaign or party broken into,” he said in a statement. “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.”
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The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The campaign office, in a commercial area about 25 miles northwest of downtown Washington, also serves as the headquarters for the Republican Committee for Virginia’s 10th District. The chair of the committee, Chris Harnisch, said in a statement that he did not have any additional information about the break-in and that the committee was “very grateful” for the support of the sheriff’s office.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Tim Balk/Doug Mills
c.2024 The New York Times Company
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