The conspirators had a two-phase plan: detonate explosive-laden drones over the crowd gathered at the White House for the UFC event, then open fire on the people running. They had mapped the area, arranged escape routes and identified targets by name — among them the President of the United States, the Vice President, Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk.
Federal authorities arrested five people across multiple states before any of it could be executed, announcing the operation Tuesday as unsealed court documents provided the first detailed accounting of a conspiracy that investigators say they uncovered just four days before the event on the South Lawn.
The show went ahead Sunday as planned.
Thousands of spectators, fourteen fighters competing beneath a 92-foot structure called The Claw, the whole spectacle staged steps from the Oval Office to mark President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and the country’s 250th anniversary. The threat surrounding it entered the public record only after the arrests were complete and the crowd had gone home.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the bureau learned of the plot on Wednesday and moved immediately. “Multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Patel wrote Tuesday on X, crediting a multi-state operation alongside the Justice Department. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said his agency worked in parallel with the FBI throughout the period, with agents and technical security teams running around the clock in the days before the event. The five defendants face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, among other counts. Court documents describe investigators recovering firearms, ammunition and encrypted communications from a broader network of 19 people believed to have participated — sharing maps and photographs of the target area and coordinating escape logistics.
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Among the most detailed portraits in the filings belongs to Tycen Proper, 19, of Ohio — arrested after his own mother called local police to report him. She had grown alarmed by recent firearms purchases, his contact with strangers online and statements she found disturbing, including comments expressing sympathy for Adolf Hitler and antisemitic posts on Facebook. Knox County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the family home and found thousands of rounds of ammunition, an assault-style rifle and a bullpup rifle — purchased June 5 — painted with an American flag. Proper was transported to a hospital for emergency psychiatric evaluation on what an FBI task force officer’s affidavit described as homicidal ideations. Federal authorities were contacted the following day.
His mother told investigators he had recently begun spending time with an online group whose members described themselves as ex-military and Christian-based.
Daniel Eskridge, 32, of Missouri, was charged after a search of his property. Chat logs reviewed by the FBI show him telling other group members he was converting his garage into a safe house and constructing a bunker beneath the floorboards of his shed — preparation that had moved from encrypted conversation into physical modification of his home.
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The explicit target list surfaced in materials attributed to Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, who allegedly circulated a screenshot designating people for the group to pursue. Federal investigators matched those designations to Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Netanyahu and Musk. Two California men, Bryan Omar Roa and Michael Alan Thomas, were arrested Saturday after searches of their homes produced evidence tying them to the conspiracy. Roa’s family told investigators his weapons usage had intensified in recent months and his behavior had shifted noticeably, coinciding with what they described as a new circle of online contacts.
The investigation remains open, with 19 individuals identified across the encrypted chats and five now in custody.
At the Group of Seven summit in France, Trump was asked about the foiled plot. He said he hadn’t heard about it. “The attack that I watched,” he added, “was the fighters.”
The case arrives inside a measurable surge in political threat activity. Capitol Police investigated nearly 15,000 concerning communications and behaviors targeting lawmakers, their families and staff last year — up from more than 9,000 the year prior. In April, a man charged with attempting to assassinate the president forced his way through a checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner carrying guns and knives.
In this case, federal agents did not get there first. The families of at least three of the five arrested men contacted law enforcement before the FBI did — a detail noted without comment in the court filings, but one that runs through the entire case like a thread: the people who knew these men best saw the danger forming and made the call.