Secret Service Officials Are ‘Furious’ FBI Director Kash Patel Released Info on Thwarted UFC Attack: Report

Jose Luis Magana/AP photo

On Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that his agency and law enforcement had thwarted a plot to use “explosive-laden drones” to attack the UFC fight on the White House South Lawn, and the Secret Service is “furious” about that information being shared publicly, reported MS Now justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian.

The “UFC Freedom 250” match was held on the White House South Lawn on Sunday, the same day as President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. It has already generated eyebrow-raising headlines over the spectacle of the event, allegations that Eric Trump had attempted to contact a former UFC fighter to ask about betting on rigged fights, and fighter Josh Hokit declaring after winning a fight that former First Lady Michelle Obama “is a man!”

Tuesday morning, Patel posted a statement on social media about the foiled attack, writing that the FBI, DOJ, and local law enforcement had taken “multiple individuals” into custody and the “allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold.”

Fox News Digital reported — in an article link shared by Patel — that FBI had intercepted Signal chat messages between 23 people “discussing pre-operational activity” and five people were in custody as of Tuesday morning. The plot allegedly “involved using explosive-laden drones to hit buildings near the event, force a mass evacuation and steer crowds toward a pre-staged sniper team, officials said,” Fox News Digital reported, to be followed by a “second wave” attack to storm the White House gate.

Those arrested were from multiple states and are all U.S. citizens, multiple sources told Fox News Digital.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran issued a statement to Fox News Digital saying that “special agents, mission support personnel, and technical security teams” with his agency had “worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” but according to Dilation’s report, the internal reaction among Secret Service agents to Patel’s announcement was far less positive.

In a long post on X, Dilanian shared the results of his reporting with his colleagues Carol Leonnig, Marc Santia, and Lisa Rubin.

Citing “three people familiar with the incident,” Dilanian wrote that “Secret Service officials are furious” that Patel had “prematurely announced on Tuesday morning the details of a sealed and ongoing criminal investigation into a plot to attack the UFC fight event this weekend with drones,” because the case was still sealed in court and not all the suspects were in custody yet.

Dilanian’s report continued:

Secret Service and FBI agents had been partnered on the investigation into a group of individuals discussing plans for a drone attack at the White House in the last week, and had discussed unsealing the case and making an announcement later that day. The problem with Patel’s social media announcement, the sources say, was the case had been sealed in court and roughly ten suspects had not yet been arrested and placed in custody at the time Patel made his public social media post.

Secret Service and FBI officials had discussed seeking to make more arrests, unseal the case by late Tuesday afternoon and make a joint public statement, and were surprised by Patel “jumping the gun.”

“We all woke up this morning to see this on Twitter,” said one administration official, who like others, asked to speak confidentially to discuss sensitive matters.

In a news conference Tuesday morning, Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn lashed out — without naming Patel.

“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,” he said. Quinn added, “The Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I’ll tell you that case is ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”

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