A federal grand jury has indicted eight men in connection with an alleged plot to attack an Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts event held on the White House lawn in June, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the DOJ, the eight defendants were charged together in a two-count indictment returned in Columbus, Ohio. The first arrest occurred in Ohio, and the department said the remaining defendants have since been taken into custody. The accused range in age from 19 to 32.
The indictment names two criminal conspiracies as the basis for charges: conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official, the DOJ said.
The Justice Department alleges the defendants planned to murder multiple named and unspecified civilian and government figures at the event. The indictment specifically lists President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, U.S. officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, billionaire Elon Musk and "other high value targets," according to the DOJ statement.
President Trump attended the event, which federal authorities said was staged without incident on his 80th birthday. The gathering brought together several senior Republican lawmakers, donors and administration officials to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. The DOJ noted that Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the event.
Authorities said the suspects could not be reached for comment.
The DOJ and the FBI have described how the alleged plot was coordinated. The eight men are accused of participating in online chat groups and forums on multiple messaging and social platforms, including Signal, SimpleX, Discord, TikTok and Instagram.
Federal investigators have said the plan involved deploying drones loaded with explosives to strike the north side of the White House. The alleged operational objective was to funnel attendees toward a designated exit where snipers would open fire on politicians and other people fleeing the scene, the FBI said when it disclosed that the planned attack had been thwarted last month.
The indictment and related public statements by the DOJ follow an FBI announcement last month that it had disrupted a planned attack on the White House UFC event. The department stated the charges were returned on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
Context and next steps
The indictment initiates a federal criminal process that will proceed through pretrial and potential trial phases. As of the DOJ statement, all eight defendants have been arrested and face the two-count indictment as described above. The department has provided the allegations in public filings and statements; further details about the investigation and prosecutorial timeline were not included in the department's Thursday release.