Two suspects in UFC White House terror plot plead not guilty - ESPN

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two of the eight men indicted in an alleged drone and sniper plot to attack President Donald Trump's UFC cage-fighting show on the White House lawn pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal conspiracy charges.

Clothed in jail garb and shackled, Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Ohio, where the case has been consolidated. They and the other six defendants are each 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.

Sargus set their trial date for Sept. 14.

«What would have happened or could have happened, that's never going to be clear, because, thank God, there was an intervention here and this thing was disrupted,» U.S. Attorney Dominick Gerace II told reporters last week as he detailed the group's July 9 indictments. «But, in my view, 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.»

Attorneys for Proper and Scaggs declined to comment after the hearing.

According to the indictment, the plot began in May. Members of the group — citing grievances about government corruption, water-guzzling data centers and the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files — began amassing money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical equipment, communications equipment and other items.

The attack was planned to take place at the cage-fighting show dubbed UFC Freedom 250, which was held on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation's