8 charged with murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism for planned attack on White House UFC event
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Eight men were charged with murder and conspiracy on Thursday for their alleged roles in a drone and sniper attack on a UFC cage fight at the White House in June.
The indictment, extradited to Ohio, charges all eight with two separate counts, one count of providing material support to terrorists and one count of murder on federal property and murder of a federal official.
It is not clear from the court records how close the would-be attackers would have been to being able to carry out the plan if they had not been interrupted.
According to the indictment, the conspiracy began in May, when the group began collecting money, guns, ammunition, weapons, explosives, drones, medical supplies, communication equipment and more.
On June 10, law enforcement officials are studying the potential dangers of President Donald Trump's UFC cage fighting show, four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza.
The White House's South Lawn has been turned into a cage fighting arena as US President Donald Trump hosted a UFC event on Sunday evening to celebrate his 80th birthday and the country's 250th anniversary. CBC's Katie Simpson reports from Washington about the mixed reaction to the $60 million US show.
The US Department of Justice announced federal charges against seven people last month from across the country, including from Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska and California. Officials said members of the group had ulterior motives and hoped the attack would destabilize the government.
One of the defendants told investigators that they planned to fly explosives into the party and shoot the terrified people as they fled, according to a federal affidavit.
Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and four others were arrested and charged in Missouri, Nebraska and California during the weekend of the UFC event, called Freedom 250. Two other defendants were charged and arrested by the FBI about a week later in Washington and Missouri. The Department of Justice said an eighth man was charged this week.
An eighth defendant, Chandler D. Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, W.Va., was taken into custody in that case. Scaggs was allegedly assigned to be one of the shooters in the planned attack, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said Scaggs was supposed to be taken by Proper to Washington but lost contact with Proper after he was arrested, as did the others. Scaggs is said to have shown the group that he is still willing to participate in the attack and planned to attend the event with another associate.
Conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit murder is punishable by life in prison.
Federal prosecutors said the group planned to kill Trump, US Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, billionaire businessman Elon Musk and “other high-value targets” at the event.
