Two Men Plead Not Guilty in Alleged Drone-and-Sniper Plot Against Trump's White House UFC Event

Two of the eight men charged in an alleged plot to attack the cage-fighting card President Donald Trump staged on the White House South Lawn pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal conspiracy charges, setting up a trial this fall.

Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Columbus, Ohio, where the case against all eight defendants has been consolidated. Each man is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official. The first count carries up to 15 years in prison; the second carries a potential life sentence. Trial is scheduled to begin September 14.

According to the indictments, the group began planning in May to attack UFC Freedom 250, the event Trump held on the South Lawn on June 14, his 80th birthday. Prosecutors say the men amassed money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical supplies and communications equipment. One defendant told investigators the group planned to fly explosive-laden drones into the event and then shoot panicked spectators as they fled. Law enforcement learned of the threat four days before the event.

The alleged conspirators cited a tangle of grievances, according to court filings: government corruption, water-guzzling data centers, and the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The mix of complaints — spanning environmental anger, anti-government sentiment and a conspiracy-adjacent fixation — cuts against the tidy ideological profile that usually accompanies terrorism prosecutions.

Defense attorneys have begun signaling how they intend to fight the charges. A lawyer for Scaggs pointed to what he called a "significant disconnect between the severity of the alleged offenses and Mr. Scaggs' naivety, lack of sophistication, and judgment" — an early indication the defense will argue their clients were talkers rather than operators, a familiar line of attack in material-support cases built substantially on intercepted communications and planning documents rather than a completed act.

The event itself was already among the most contested spectacles of Trump's second term. A federal judge briefly blocked the fight card before it went forward despite a last-minute legal challenge, and the White House promoted a custom UFC "Claw" championship belt for the birthday match. The FBI announced it had foiled the drone-and-sniper plot in mid-June. The six remaining defendants face the same charges and are expected to be arraigned in the same consolidated proceeding.