A British man has been deported home after nearly 11 months in US custody for trying to grab a police officer's gun in a bid to shoot then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, authorities say.
Michael Steven Sandford, 21, was escorted by federal agents aboard a commercial aircraft on Wednesday for his flight from Seattle to London, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Sandford was found to have overstayed a 90-day visa after entering the US in June 2015, Kice said. He had been held at a federal prison near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Sandford's court-appointed lawyer in Las Vegas, Brenda Weksler, said she spoke with Sandford's mother, Lynne Sandford of Dorking, England, while Sandford was on the way home. Weksler didn't describe the conversation.
The mother's lawyer in London, Saimo Chahal said previously that MIchael Sandford suffers seizures, obsession-compulsion, anxiety and autism spectrum disorders, and that a psychiatrist determined he was delusional at the time of the attempted attack.
A federal judge acknowledged in December that Sandford had been diagnosed with psychotic mental illness, and said he would be deported after he served his prison time.
Sandford pleaded guilty in September to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function. He acknowledged trying with both hands to grab a police officer's gun during a June 18 campaign rally in a crowded Las Vegas strip casino ballroom.
It was not clear if Trump recognised a threat before officers escorted Sandford out of the 1500-seat theatre at the Treasure Island hotel-casino. But Trump noticed the commotion and thanked police as Sandford was ushered away.
Sandford told a federal agent following his arrest that he planned and practised the attack, and arrived in Las Vegas days before the campaign event.
