U.S. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was considered as a target by those accused of planning a drone-and-sniper attack at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC): Freedom 250 event held on the White House lawn on Sunday, according to criminal complaints filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) against two of the alleged plotters.
All four of the criminal complaints against the five named defendants appear to contain similar allegations, including the DOJ complaint filed in the Northern District of Nebraska against the plot’s alleged ringleader, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, who illegally remained inside the United States after his visa expired in 2001, and was later granted Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by the Obama administration in 2014.
The complaint against Alvarez specifically claims another of the accused, Tycen Proper of Ohio, specifically named Blackburn as a potential target in a message sent to other plotters.
“Proper identified specific politicians that were supportive of Israel, stating ‘these are the people we’re going to focus on,'” according to the criminal complaint.
The DOJ alleges, “Proper included names and photos for US Senator Marsha Blackburn, US Senator Tom Cotton, US Senator Shelley Moore Capito, US Senator Jim Justice, US Representative Carol Miller, US Representative Riley Moore, and WV State Delegate Tristan Leavitt.”
In the complaint against Proper, filed in the Southern District of Ohio, prosecutors add more detail about what the alleged plotter wrote about Blackburn.
“I got a possible target,” Proper allegedly wrote. “Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee, he told the other plotters, according to the DOJ, “She’s taken money from the Israel [sic] pro Israel lobby and supports them.”
The complaint filed against Daniel Ekridge in the Western District of Missouri appears to contain the same quotes attributed to Proper in the Nebraska and Ohio filings, but omits the names of individual lawmakers.
Similarly, the complaint filed against Michael Alan Thomas and Bryan Omar Roa in the Central District of California redacts the names, but indicates Proper retrieved images depicting the lawmakers, “from the website ‘TrackAIPAC.com,” which purports to track the amount of money politicians receive “from pro-Israel PACS.”
According to the John Locke Foundation, the Track AIPAC website was founded by Cory Archibald, a “self-proclaimed Marxist” who considers herself an “American expat” and “cat lady living in Germany.”
News of the alleged plot to attack the UFC: Freedom 250 event first emerged on Tuesday, when FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the five men were arrested in what he described as a “multi-state operation.”
Patel stated, “While the result represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team — we are built to detect, respond to, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens — particularly during large gatherings like the historic UFC 250 fight.”
Dana White, the CEO of UFC, has stated that more than 200,000 people attended the two-day event, with over 60,000 attending the watch party on the Ellipse during the Sunday night fights. Deadline has reported that more than 17 million tuned in for some portion of the event’s live-stream.
Polls have consistently shown Blackburn polling well over 50 percent in the three-way contest to select the Republican Party nominee to become Tennessee’s next governor.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Sen. Marsha Blackburn” by Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
