KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged several defendants, including a Missouri man, with conspiring to commit murder at last weekend’s UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.
Authorities arrested Missouri resident Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, on Monday, charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Eskridge appeared before a judge for the first time on Monday. The court has scheduled his detention and preliminary hearing for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 18, at the federal courthouse in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The court appointed Eskridge an attorney, and he remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon.
Online records show Eskridge lives in Hamilton, Missouri, roughly an hour north of Kansas City.
According to court documents, federal law enforcement learned of Eskridge’s involvement in the conspiracy after the mother of a 19-year-old Ohio man tipped off authorities, citing concerns about her son’s firearms purchases and online communications.
Authorities also charged that man, Tycen Proper, as part of the conspiracy.
According to the affidavit, Proper admitted during an interview with law enforcement that he had helped plan an attack. The affidavit states that some members of the group began communicating last March through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”
“The members of the group stated that they wanted to protect the United States, which they believed was headed in the wrong direction,” the affidavit states. “Members of the group believed that the United States needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt. Some expressed a desire that people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein should not govern the country.”
Authorities said the group discussed the attack’s logistics on Signal, an app that uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging and calling services, using a primary chat of “approximately 19 individuals” along with smaller side chats.
Per the affidavit, messages recovered from Proper’s phone show he discussed the plot with others and named several lawmakers he believed should be targeted for their support of Israel.
Proper told law enforcement he had planned to drive to a meet-up spot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with weapons and body armor, where the group intended to gather. According to the affidavit, he said that while he didn’t intend to shoot anyone at the White House, other members of the group did.
Authorities said the plan involved detonating drones over the White House’s north side to trigger a rushed evacuation, pushing people into the line of fire of snipers positioned and waiting. Proper described the scheme as an attempt to “jumpstart” a revolution in the U.S.
President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday. Years ago, Trump was friends with Epstein, though he has said he cut ties with the financier before his crimes came to light. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Évian-les-Bains, France, where he attended the Group of Seven summit, Trump, a Republican, said no one had briefed him yet on the thwarted plot.