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Law enforcement officials foiled a planned attack on a UFC show at the White House this past weekend, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
Protesters disgruntled with the country’s approach used explosive-laden flying bombs to create a separate event and then shot panicked crowd members as they fled, according to allegations.
The FBI found encrypted text messages between about 20 participants sharing detailed maps of the area and discussing the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the attack, the documents show.
It is not clear from the court records how close the would-be attackers were to being able to carry out their failed plan last week.
FBI agents learned of the potential threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the swift action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multinational operation, many people are now in custody and the suspected planned attack was stopped,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday.
“Members of the group say they want to protect the United States, which they believe is headed in the wrong direction,” the affidavit said. “Members of this group believe that the United States needs to be torn down in order to be rebuilt. Others have expressed the desire that people associated with Jeffrey Epstein not harm the country.”
Epstein committed suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, having previously served a short sentence in a Florida prison on charges of attempted prostitution and attempted prostitution of a child under 18.
An Ohio man was arrested
According to the affidavit, some members of the group began communicating with each other in March through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”
Five people from all over the country were arrested. Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man whose mother contacted law enforcement last week with concerns about his gun purchases and online communications “with individuals who claim to be military and Christian-based,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
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Proper and others on the SimpleX chat app are said to have discussed how members of Congress may have accepted money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and House Reps. Riley Moore and Carol Miller from West Virginia.
It is unclear if any of those members of Congress attended Sunday night’s fight card at the White House.
The assistant federal public defender assigned to represent Proper, who faces felony charges including attempted murder of a United States official or employee, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
US President Donald Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at a UFC event on Sunday, has been friends with Epstein for several years. Although Trump has given conflicting answers about why and how the relationship ended, there is no evidence linking the two men after the early 2000s, before Epstein’s first arrest in Florida.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Évian-les-Bains, France, where he attended the G7 summit, Trump, a Republican, said he had not yet been briefed on the foiled plot.
