The FBI announced on Tuesday that it had disrupted a sophisticated attack targeting the UFC fight on the White House lawn on Sunday, with Fox News reporting that one suspect allegedly told investigators that the attack was targeting “capitalist elites,” “billionaires” and politicians who received donations from AIPAC.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that multiple individuals outside the D.C. area were in custody in connection with the attack in what he said was a multi-state operation. Fox News reported that five arrests had been made and 23 people were identified as being involved.

In an announcement, the Department of Justice said that the investigation is still ongoing and that arrests were carried out in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California.

According to a criminal complaint released by the DOJ, one of the suspects, Tycen Proper, “appeared to identify potential US Congressional targets due to their support for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), noting donations the members previously received from AIPAC” and identified several specific leaders he planned to focus on because they “were supportive of Israel.”

The targets included Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jim Justice (R-WV), Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) and West Virginia state Del. Tristan Leavitt.

According to the complaint, another one of the suspects identified Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who some claimed would be attending the fight, as another primary target, alongside President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk.

According to Fox News, the attack plot called for attacking buildings near the event using explosive-laden drones, forcing an evacuation from the UFC event into the path of a sniper team, followed by an attempt to storm the White House gate.

Fox News reported that authorities have identified no foreign connection to the attempted attack.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee appointed Deryn Sousa as spokesperson, replacing Marshall Wittmann, who retired at the end of 2025 after 13 years in the role. 

Sousa steps into the public-facing position during a time when AIPAC is regularly in the spotlight — and as the powerful pro-Israel organization faces outsized criticism from the far left and far right over its influence in the American political system. 

She reflects a different career trajectory than that taken by Wittmann, who came to AIPAC toward the end of his career after decades working in politics in Washington, including as communications director for Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ). 

Sousa has worked for AIPAC for a decade, having joined the organization soon after she graduated from the University of Georgia, where she studied Arabic and international affairs. She moved to Washington for the spokesperson role from Houston, where she served until recently as AIPAC’s Southwest regional political director. 

In a 2016 Times of Israel blog post, Sousa reflected on her first trip to Israel on an AIPAC mission for non-Jewish college students. She described her connection to Israel as a Christian. 

“I was sitting in the Jewish homeland, at the Christian site of Jesus’ burial, with the faint sound of the Muslim call to prayer in the background. My three worlds came together at this exact moment: my Christian faith, my pro-Israel work for the Jewish cause, and my passion for my Arabic studies,” Sousa wrote. “In that moment, all three religions coexisted.”