7 people now face charges in plot targeting UFC event at White House
Federal prosecutors have arrested two new defendants in connection with the alleged plot to attack the White House's UFC event earlier this month, according to court documents unsealed on Monday.
Federal prosecutors arrested Missouri man, Jordan Rincker, and Washington man, William Lee Falkner -- making them the sixth and seventh defendants, respectively, to face charges in connection with the plot. Rincker and Falkner are alleged to have conspired with at least five others charged last week in coordinating the plot.
Prosecutors say Rincker accepted a $1,200 cash payment from Nebraska co-conspirator Abraham Alvarez and provided him with a pump action shot gun during an in-person meeting on June 12.
Rincker also wired $100 to California defendant Bryan Roa for his drive from California to Washington, D.C. for the UFC event, according to the court documents.
Prosecutors point to messages from June 13 allegedly exchanged between Rincker and Alvarez after the group appeared to back away from plans to target the UFC event. Alvarez messaged that the group instead "should prepare for an attack" that prosecutors said appeared to be directed against the FIFA World Cup in Kansas City.
In other messages with Alvarez, Rincker discussed using a 3D printer that he claimed to be using to manufacture parts needed to construct the drones that they'd use to detonate explosives over the UFC event -- though in an interview with investigators on Sunday, Rincker said he had never attempted to design a drone and didn't even know how to do it.
Falkner is alleged to have communicated with co-conspirators in Telegram chats about his ability to procure and operate drones and the use of explosives to carry out the attack, according to his arrest affidavit.
Falkner is alleged to have discussed in detail with the group ways the drones could be rigged with explosives including 155mm artillery shells -- and claimed he was capable of flying up to 40 simultaneously.
"I’m pretty sure the effective kill radius is 50 meters," Falkner said. "It will be loud, but it’ll be quick."
It's still unclear, however, based on the court documents, whether investigators have seized any drones or explosives in connection with their investigation.
In their affidavit for Rincker, prosecutors provide new details on their investigation into the group that allegedly planned the UFC attack on another encrypted messaging app, Signal.
Law enforcement was only alerted to the plot after the mother of Ohio man, Tycen Proper, raised concerns to police about his recent amassing of firearms and troubling conversations with individuals online. According to the affidavit, FBI officials seized a journal from Proper's room that included a list of approximately 46 names, including celebrities and politicians.
After their investigation of Proper led them to search his phone and access his Signal chats, investigators identified multiple others involved in planning the UFC attack including Missouri man Daniel Eskridge, who was among those arrested last week.
According to Signal chats included in Rincker's affidavit, Eskridge extensively discussed in chats last month how the group should plan an attack or series of attacks that would bring the country toward revolution and that those targeted for killing should be "someone that can't be easily turned into a right vs left thing," adding, "we want someone both sides would celebrate."
Falkner, however, appeared to speak about targeting President Donald Trump directly, saying in his Telegram chats that "this ain't gonna be a false flag like the last 10 attempted on his life" -- referring to conspiracy theories that Trump's assassination attempts were staged.
"Every week now we hear some guy went over there alone with a gun and gets shot," Falkner said. "I don’t get what’s so hard about just flying a few drones and getting some help to do so."
Neither Rincker nor Falkner had an attorney listed for them on their court dockets.
