The FBI foiled an alleged plot to attack Sunday’s UFC fight at the White House, FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday morning in a post on X.
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“On June 10, FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington, D.C. involving individuals outside of the National Capital Region — and thanks to the rapid action of this FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Patel said in the post.
In an affidavit released Tuesday, the FBI laid out the alleged would-be attackers’ detailed plot to target the UFC fight with explosive-laden drones and shooters to fire at the fleeing crowd. Nineteen people were involved in a chat discussing the alleged plot, according to the affidavit.
Details of the plan were first reported by Fox News.
Tycen Proper, 19, has been arrested in Ohio and charged with attempted murder and several firearms charges after admitting to investigators he helped plan an attack, according to court documents.
FBI task force officer Christopher Betts said in the court document that Proper’s mother called police in Ohio last Wednesday to express concerns about her son due to “recent conduct,” including firearms purchases and communications with “random” individuals online.
His family also told law enforcement officers that Proper recently made “concerning statements,” including “making sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler and posting anti-Semitic comments on Facebook.”
When the Knox County sheriff’s officers arrived at the family home, they found thousands of rounds of ammunition, an assault-style rifle, and a bullpup rifle — purchased on June 5 — painted with an American flag.
“The equipment was turned over voluntarily by the family to law enforcement,” Betts wrote.
The sheriff’s office then took Proper to a local hospital for emergency admission “based on homicidal ideations,” he wrote.
The next day, the sheriff’s office contacted the FBI.
In an interview with Proper’s mother, Betts wrote, she told them Proper “had recently begun interacting with a group online that was comprised of individuals who claimed to be ex-military and Christian-based.”
In an interview with investigators, Proper allegedly described the plan for the attack, saying that the group’s members would meet in Frederickburg, Virginia, a day or two before the UFC fight.
The suspect said he “was not going to the protest in order to shoot people,” but noted that “several other members of the group were intent on violence,” Betts said.
The plan, the FBI alleged based on their interview with Proper, was that the group was going to stage a “demonstration” on the north side of the White House.
“While the demonstration was taking place, the group would fly small, unmanned aircraft (i.e. drones) laden with unspecified explosive devices which would detonate over the north side of the UFC arena,” the affidavit said. “When the unmanned aircraft detonated, the intent was to force was to force the crowd attending the UFC event and high value targets (HVTs) to evacuate to the south.”
Proper allegedly said that members of the group would then shoot the fleeing crowd.
“According to Proper, this attack was designed to ‘jumpstart’ a revolution in the United States,” the document said.
Proper also alleedly said that “members of the group believed that the United States needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt” and that some members “expressed a desire that people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein should not govern the country.”
President Donald Trump, who attended the UFC event, used to be friends with Epstein, but has said they had a falling out. The White House has also said that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep.”
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” that he believed the FBI was informing the public “because the scale of the planned attack is so significant,” adding that he had only just heard about the foil plot this morning.
Asked at the Group of Seven summit in France about the alleged plot, President Donald Trump said, “I haven’t heard about it.”
“The attack that I watched was the fighters,” he added.
Reached for comment, an FBI spokesperson referred NBC News to Patel’s post. The Justice Department declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately provide comment.
In a statement on X, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said that his agency “worked closely with the FBI throughout this investigation.”
“In the days leading up to this weekend, our special agents, mission support personnel, and technical security teams worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” Curran wrote. “Equally important to our protective mission is ensuring accountability through the justice system.”
The Secret Service’s “formal comments” on plot details would be made through court filings, he said.
There was an enormous visible law enforcement presence in and around the White House complex over the weekend. Law enforcement officials blocked off roads, used fencing to control crowds and deployed hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officers to the crowd of thousands of people who were at or near the White House.
A string of acts of political violence and attempted attacks have rocked the country in recent years.
In April, a man allegedly armed with guns and knives ran through a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate the president.
In 2024, Trump faced two assassination attempts when a gunman opened fire during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and months later, when a man aimed a rifle through bushes at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump was playing golf.
Last year, a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were killed in what authorities called a “politically motivated” attack. The suspect, Vance Boelter, has pleaded guilty to the crime. Months after those shootings, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a political event.
Lawmakers too, are facing a spike in threats. The U.S. Capitol Police said they investigated nearly 15,000 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” targeting lawmakers, their families, staff or the Capitol last year. The prior year, police investigated more than 9,000 potential threats.
