Armed man arrested at Trump golf course days before fundraising dinner

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An armed suspect was arrested late Sunday afternoon at Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes just days before the President Donald Trump’s fundraiser set to be held there, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.

The man, identified as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele, was observed by plainclothes federal agents taking photographs and videos and appearing to monitor security-planning activity. Once he was detained in a parking lot on the golf course, deputies found a 16-round magazine in his pocket, the advisory from the sheriff’s department said. In a subsequent search of his car, investigators said, they also recovered a loaded pistol and an additional loaded magazine.

Sheriff’s detectives and FBI agents executed a search on his home in the Southern California city of Downey on Monday, where they said they found more firearms, ammunition, body armor, multiple notebooks containing “concerning statements” and two radio signal devices.

In the advisory, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that the case had been presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and that investigators had not identified any credible ongoing threats to the community. A public information officer for the sheriff’s department could not immediately answer whether there would be additional security for Tuesday evening’s event, which is still scheduled to take place.

Trump traveled to Los Angeles for a Republican National Committee dinner at his own Trump National Golf Club, where the White House said he would “tout his wins for the people of the Golden State.”

Trump will “draw a sharp contrast between his commonsense agenda and the radical policies of Democrats like Gavin Newsom, who keep raising taxes, inviting rampant fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, and protecting illegal immigrant drug dealers, rapists, and murderers,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement earlier in the day.

Newsom, for his part, slammed Trump’s trip, with spokesperson Tara Gallegos saying in a statement the president is “coming to Los Angeles to raise money while wildfire survivors are still waiting for the federal recovery funding he promised 18 months ago. ”

“Californians deserve a President focused on helping families rebuild — not raising money for himself at his golf course,” Gallegos added.

Newsom said later in a statement that he hopes that the visit “brings long overdue federal recovery funding directly to the families rebuilding after the LA wildfires.”

The White House could not be immediately reached for comment.

Lindsey Holden contributed to this report.