COLUMBUS, Ohio — Eight men now face federal murder and terrorism conspiracy charges after a grand jury in Ohio indicted them Thursday for their alleged involvement in a foiled plot to attack a UFC cage-fighting event held at the White House back in June.
The indictment lays out two separate conspiracies: one involving the alleged provision of material support to terrorists, and another involving plans to commit murder on federal government property and to kill a federal government official.
Court records do not make clear how close the alleged attackers may have come to actually carrying out the plan before it was stopped by law enforcement.
According to the indictment, the plot began taking shape in May, when members of the group started gathering money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical supplies, communications gear, and other materials.
Authorities first became aware of a potential threat to President Donald Trump’s UFC event on June 10 — four days before the mixed martial arts show, known as Freedom 250, was set to take place.
Last month, the Justice Department announced a series of criminal complaints filed in several districts across the country in connection with the alleged plot, including cases originating in Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska, and California. Thursday’s indictment is an effort to consolidate those cases into a single conspiracy prosecution in Ohio.
Officials have said the individuals involved held fringe conspiracy theories and believed the attack would destabilize the U.S. government.
One defendant told investigators the group intended to fly drones loaded with explosives into the event and then open fire on crowd members as they fled in panic, according to a federal affidavit.
Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, along with four others, was arrested and charged in Missouri, Nebraska, and California during the same weekend as the UFC event. Two additional defendants were arrested about a week later by the FBI in Washington and Missouri.
The Justice Department announced this week that an eighth suspect has been charged: 21-year-old Chandler D. Scaggs of Chapmanville, West Virginia, who was taken into custody in that state. Scaggs is alleged to have been designated as one of the snipers in the planned attack, according to an affidavit.
That same affidavit states that Scaggs was reportedly supposed to be picked up by Proper and transported to Washington, but lost contact after Proper was arrested. Scaggs allegedly signaled to other members of the group that he was still willing to go through with the attack and made arrangements to travel to the event with another co-conspirator.
Federal prosecutors allege the group planned to murder President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other federal officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, businessman Elon Musk, and what they described as “other high value targets” at the event.
A conviction on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Conspiring to commit murder can result in a sentence of up to life in prison.
