Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Suspect who attacked congressman’s staffers with baseball bat filed bizarre lawsuit agains CIA

Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, was arrested after entering the district office of Rep Gerry Connolly

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Tuesday 16 May 2023 23:16 BST
Virginia congressman’s staff members recovering after baseball bat attack

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A Virginia man accused of attacking two members of a congressman’s staff with a metal baseball bat had previously filed a bizarre lawsuit against the CIA.

Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, was arrested after entering the district office of Representative Gerry Connolly, a Republican from Virginia, and allegedly beating the staff members.

Both staffers were taken to hospital following the incident but later discharged.

The suspect, who is from Fairfax where the attack took place, is a constituent and now faces charges of one count of aggravated malicious wounding and one count of malicious wounding,

US Capitol Police have not yet released any motive for the attack, which also saw the suspect allegedly break glass and damage computers at the office.

Fairfax City Police say that the suspect was arrested within five minutes of the alarm being raised and he is now being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond.

Mr Pham sued the CIA for $29m last year claiming the intelligence agency “has been guilty of wrongfully imprisoning me in a lower perspective based on physics called the book world since 1975,” reported NBC News.

“Following that they are guilty of brutally torturing me with a degenerating disability consistently since 1988 till the present from the fourth dimension.”

And the lawsuit added: “I am entitled to be cured and returned to normal condition by a digital technology and compensated for my extreme suffering and losses in the amount of $29,000,000.”

The CIA moved to have the lawsuit dismissed last month and the motion is pending.

Mr Pham’s father, Hy Xuan Pham, told CNN his son is schizophrenic and has not taken his medication for three months.

“He is in a really bad condition,” the father told the network. “All day and all night, he mumbles … he talks and looks like he talks with someone in his brain, and suddenly, he is shouting angrily.”

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in