Secret Service officials were angry after FBI Director Kash Patel blindsided them and publicly announced details of a sealed, ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to attack a UFC fight event at the White House.
Patel’s announcement Tuesday morning potentially compromised roughly 10 arrests that had not yet been made, according to three people familiar with the matter, and his social media post disrupted plans by Secret Service and FBI officials to unseal the case later that afternoon and issue a joint public statement, reported NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian.
“We all woke up this morning to see this on Twitter,” one administration official said, speaking anonymously to discuss sensitive matters.
The investigation began last week when a relative of one of the suspects contacted local police in the Cincinnati area to report that their family member was discussing a vague plot in Washington. A Secret Service advanced threat interdiction team, working with the FBI, obtained a subpoena for an encrypted Signal chat thread that revealed plans for the drone attack. One suspect was arrested June 13, and the case was immediately sealed to allow investigators to identify and arrest additional suspects.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn publicly rebuked the premature disclosure at a news conference Tuesday without naming Patel directly. “Don’t choke on your own smoke,” Quinn said, invoking a phrase learned early in his career. “The Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”
Quinn declined to discuss further details, noting the case remained sealed and active.
The Secret Service has since dramatically expanded security around the weekend event and issued alerts to law enforcement partners to watch for drones in downtown Washington.
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