Two plead not guilty in foiled White House UFC attack
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- Tycen Proper (19, Danville, Ohio) and Chandler Scaggs (21, Chapmanville, West Virginia) pleaded not guilty Thursday before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Columbus — the first of eight co-defendants to enter pleas in the case.
- Sargus set a trial date of September 14; the six remaining defendants, charged in Missouri, Nebraska, California, and Washington, are still being transferred to Ohio, with cases consolidated for likely group trial.
- The indictment alleges the plot began in May, with conspirators citing grievances over government corruption, water-guzzling data centers, and the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files while amassing firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, and medical supplies.
- The target was UFC Freedom 250, a cage-fighting show held on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary; law enforcement learned of the threat four days before the event was scheduled.
- One defendant told investigators the group planned to fly explosive-laden drones into the event and shoot panicked crowd members as they fled, per a federal affidavit.
- U.S. Attorney Dominick Gerace II said the allegations suggest "someone or multiple people were driving to Washington, D.C., to do something," calling the law enforcement intervention a disruption of what seemed like an imminent attack.
Why it matters: The scope — eight defendants across five states, detailed drone-and-sniper planning, and a target on federal property during a high-profile anniversary event — elevates this from fringe conspiracy chatter to what prosecutors characterize as an imminent coordinated attack. A terrorism-conspiracy conviction at the September 14 trial would give the Justice Department a precedent for treating anti-government online networks that escalate to physical planning as material-support cases, not just speech.
