Two men pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal charges stemming from their alleged attempt to attack and storm the high-profile UFC fight at the White House last month by using drones and snipers.
Tycen Proper, 19, of Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of West Virginia, are two of the eight defendants 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, as laid out in the indictment.
The first charge could lead to 15 years in prison, and the second charge could mean a lifetime prison sentence.
The other six defendants have not entered their pleas yet. They are in the process of being moved to Ohio, where their cases were consolidated into one overarching criminal case earlier this month.
The criminal complaints for each suspect were initially filed in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, California, and Washington. Scaggs was arrested by the FBI in West Virginia and subsequently charged in Ohio. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Southern District of Ohio.
Scaggs was assigned as one of the snipers in the planned attack, the Department of Justice said. He was set to be picked up by fellow co-conspirator Proper on his way to Washington, D.C., but Proper was arrested beforehand. Scaggs tried to coordinate travel plans with another person in the group. They contacted each other via group chats on Signal, SimpleX, Discord, TikTok, and Instagram.
The trial for Proper and Scaggs is scheduled to start on Sept. 14. It remains to be seen whether the remaining six defendants will have the same trial date as the other two. They first need to enter their pleas.
The other six co-conspirators were Abraham Alvarez, 31, of Nebraska; Daniel Eskridge, 32, of Missouri; William Falkner, 21, of Washington; Jordan Rincker, 28, of Missouri; Bryan Roa, 25, of California; and Michael Thomas, 32, of California.
Law enforcement first learned of the terrorist plot on June 10, four days before the high-profile cage fight. FBI Director Kash Patel informed the public about the foiled attack two days after the event.
The alleged plot began in May when the group started acquiring money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical equipment, and communications equipment in service of the conspired attack, according to federal authorities.
EIGHT INDICTED OVER PLAN TO ATTACK WHITE HOUSE UFC FIGHT WITH DRONES AND SNIPERS
When the single two-count indictment was unveiled last week, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dominick Gerace II did not say how close the indicted suspects were to carrying out their attack plan. However, he said, “When I look at what’s been alleged there, it seems pretty likely that someone or multiple people were driving to Washington, D.C., to do something.”
Eric Brehm, an attorney for Scaggs, disputed the government’s allegations of his client’s involvement in the plot, saying “there appears to be a significant disconnect between the severity of the alleged offenses and Mr. Scaggs’s naivety, lack of sophistication, and judgment.”