- Brandon Magnan, 37, was arrested and charged by Secret Service on Monday
- Magnan allegedly passed himself off as a soldier assigned to Marine One
- Authorities allege he drove through two checkpoints at Palm Beach Airport
- Magnan allegedly used fake credentials with Marine Corps seal
- Suspicious sheriff’s deputy noticed Magnan wasn’t wearing Marine uniform
- Investigators later learned Magnan was dishonorably discharged from Marines
- He was convicted in court-martial of sexual abuse and sodomy a decade ago
A former Marine who was kicked out of the military 10 years ago has been charged with impersonating one of the soldiers guarding President Trump’s Marine One helicopter.
Brandon M. Magnan, 37, was arrested by the Secret Service and charged on Monday after he allegedly breached two checkpoints at Palm Beach International Airport and posed as a member of the security team assigned to Marine One.
Magnan, a resident of Naples, Florida, was charged on January 6 with false personation of officer or employee of the United States, according to The New York Times.
If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
Magnan is alleged to have claimed that he was part of HMX-1, the Marine Corps unit assigned to pilot and protect Marine One, the president’s personal helicopter.
Marine One usually transports the president on short trips to nearby airports where he then boards Air Force One for longer journeys.
It is unclear why Magnan tried to pass himself off as a member of the unit.
Trump was spending his winter vacation at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach at the time of the alleged incident.
On Saturday, January 5, the president was preparing to leave West Palm Beach and return to Washington, DC.
Hours before Trump’s scheduled departure, authorities say that Magnan drove a Honda Pilot with an unidentified male passenger at around 3pm.