After the FBI director announced the alleged terror plot, a Secret Service leader said the agency intentionally kept its investigation covert.
Plans to attack UFC Freedom 250 were ‘stopped cold,’ FBI says
The FBI thwarted an alleged plot to target the UFC event at the White House on June 14, said Director Kash Patel in a social media post.
WASHINGTON ‒ A top Secret Service official said the agency had intentionally kept secret its investigation into an alleged plot to attack the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House on June 14 as it worked the case.
“It was an active plot, and it’s ongoing,” Deputy Secret Service Director Matthew Quinn said. “There are still suspects at large, and we’re going to work it until everyone’s been identified.”
But FBI Director Kash Patel ended the effort’s covertness with an early social media post on June 16, exposing the threat and claiming credit for foiling it.
The FBI “and our law enforcement partners” became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington on June 10, and “multiple individuals are now in custody and the allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Patel said in a statement on X at 6:50 a.m. ET.
The Secret Service and other authorities were seeking at least 10 more people for questioning ‒ in addition to those already charged ‒ before Patel’s announcement, which made the existence of the investigation headline news, a federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY.
It is the latest in a series of public announcements by Patel that detractors have criticized as being improper releases of confidential investigative information that complicated ongoing probes.
Patel is a frequent social media user with 2 million followers on X, and he posts far more about ongoing FBI operations than previous directors like James Comey and Christopher Wray.
The most-cited example of that is when Patel prematurely claimed a breakthrough in the assassination of prominent conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in September 2025 ‒ saying a “subject” had been arrested ‒ only to have authorities release the person hours later.
He has also made remarks about the high-profile disappearance of Nancy Guthrie and a shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that were inaccurate, prompting pushback by other law enforcement agencies.
‘Don’t choke on your own smoke’
When asked about Patel’s X post at an unrelated news conference on June 16, Quinn did not call out the FBI director or his agency by name.
But the No. 2 in the Secret Service expressed frustration that details of the investigation had become public before the Secret Service intended them to be released. He also said the Secret Service, and not the FBI, is the lead agency on the case and that it is ongoing.
“I’ll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office, and that’s ‘Don’t choke on your own smoke,'” Quinn told reporters. “Anyone that believes that case was worked in a bubble (by the FBI) is naive. I’ll tell you, the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning.”
The federal law enforcement official who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation said the entire case was intentionally filed under seal so no details could leak out and alert potential suspects to the urgent investigation underway.
At least five people have been charged in connection with the alleged plot, including Tycen Proper, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, Bryan Omar Roa, Michael Alan Thomas, and Daniel K. Eskridge. The suspects spanned the country, living in states including Missouri, Ohio, and California.
Plan to attack UFC event at White House
Court documents allege a sprawling plan to attack the June 14 event attended by President Donald Trump and top Cabinet officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, and Patel.
The Secret Service and FBI became aware of the threat to the UFC event when a relative of one of the suspects contacted local police in Ohio.
After identifying a Signal chat used by the suspects, the Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit (ATIU) was able to identify alleged communications between the plotters, the federal law enforcement official said. Those plans included coming to Washington, DC, and using drones and snipers to attack the event on the South Lawn of the White House, the court documents allege.
Quinn, in his public remarks, told reporters: “I’ll tell you that it’s ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it. Look, it was a serious threat. We take all threats of a large nature very seriously, and we investigate them until we can validate 100% that it’s no longer a threat.”
Late on June 16, the FBI followed up by issuing what it said was a joint statement by the spokespersons of the FBI and Secret Service: “The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are proud of our strong working relationship. This investigation highlights that continuous partnership and could not have happened without the great work and coordination between our two agencies. This weekend’s thwarted attack should be a message to any criminal actor that if you target Americans, you will be found and brought to justice.”
‘So anxious to take credit’
Democrats in Congress have sharply criticized Patel for his use of social media, including during the Kirk case.
“On the day of the horrific shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, Director Patel again sparked mass confusion by incorrectly claiming on social media that the shooter was in custody ‒ which he then had to walk back with another social media post,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a September 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk’s assassin,” Durbin said, “that he violated one of the basics of effective law enforcement: at critical stages of an investigation, shut up and let the professionals do their job.”
