Kash Patel Claims FBI Thwarted Attack Involving Explosive Drone at Trump’s UFC White House Event

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday that his agency thwarted an attack plan at President Donald Trump’s UFC event in Washington, DC.

The event, UFC Freedom 250, took place on the White House lawn Sunday night. In a statement published Tuesday morning, Patel revealed the FBI uncovered Signal chats involving 23 people who were allegedly engaged in “discussing pre-operational activity.”

The statement continued:

On June 10, FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington, D.C. involving individuals outside of the National Capital Region – and thanks to the rapid action of this FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold.

While the result represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team – we are built to detect, respond to, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens – particularly during large gatherings like the historic UFC 250 fight. That’s exactly what we did here. I want to thank our great agents and partners, this work remains ongoing and we will continue to update the public as permitted.

According to additional information obtained by Fox News, the plan had multiple stages. In the first stage of the attack, explosive-laden drones were going to be used to target buildings in the area.

The second stage involved a storming of the White House gates. Five people were taken into custody as of Monday.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!