Federal agents thwarted an alleged planned attack on Sunday’s White House UFC fight, FBI Director Kash Patel and the Secret Service said Tuesday.
Patel wrote on X that FBI coordinated with other agencies, including the Department of Justice, in a “multi-state operation,” with several individuals “now in custody” and planned attacks “stopped cold.”
“While the result represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team — we are built to detect, respond to, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens — particularly during large gatherings like the historic UFC 250 fight,” he wrote.
The UFC event was held on Trump’s 80th birthday and is one of several White House events marking the country’s 250th anniversary. Thousands were in attendance, including Trump, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a host of congressional Republicans.
When reached for comment, the FBI pointed to Patel’s social media post and declined to share further details on the investigation. Fox News, which first disclosed the foiled planned attack, reported that investigators identified 23 people connected to the plans.
In complaints made public Tuesday, the Justice Department described a plot by conspirators to fly explosive-laden drones over the makeshift UFC arena’s north side, with snipers stationed to kill “certain high value targets” when they fled to the south.
The mother of one of the suspects, according to the documents, said they expressed “ultra-religious and antigovernment sentiments, specifically citing grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions.”
Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran said in a statement that “special agents, mission support personnel and technical security teams worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable” in the run-up to the weekend.
President Donald Trump was seemingly unaware of the threat. When asked if he was briefed about the investigation on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in France on Tuesday, Trump said he “hadn’t heard about it,” going on to praise the event.
The Secret Service appears to have been surprised by Patel’s announcement. Deputy Director Matt Quinn said at a Tuesday news conference that the agency did not disclose the existence of the ongoing probe.
“I’ll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I’ll tell you that it’s ongoing,” Quinn said. “In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”
In a Tuesday morning interview on “Fox and Friends,” Vice President JD Vance called on top Democrats to turn down the political temperature, continuing a trend from senior Trump officials arguing that political violence is coming predominantly from the left.
The Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy released last month emphasized a focus on “violent left-wing extremists,” reversing a focus from the Biden administration on extremism on the right.
“You see more political violence and violent rhetoric coming from the left than the right these days.” Vance said. “Everybody has a role to cut this stuff out. But I think a lot of my Democratic colleagues in Washington have got to look themselves in the mirror and say ‘why is so much of this political violence coming from our side of the spectrum?’”
Emilio Perez Ibarguen contributed to this report.
