British man with history of mental illness pleads guilty in Trump attack case

A British man has pleaded guilty to trying to grab a police officer’s gun and open fire at a June campaign rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas.

Standing before a judge in orange jail clothes with the word “detainee” across his back, Michael Steven Sandford acknowledged on Tuesday that he has been treated in the past for mental illness.

Court documents say Sandford previously told a federal agent that he drove from California to Las Vegas with a plan to kill Trump.

“I plead guilty, your honour,” Sandford told US District Judge James Mahan when asked for his plea to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function.

“I tried to take a gun from a policeman to shoot someone with, and I’m pleading guilty,” he said.

Sandford didn’t get the gun before he was arrested, and no shots were fired.

The judge said he was satisfied that Sandford was fit to enter the plea, even though the defendant said he had taken the anti-psychotic medication risperidone.