WASHINGTON — On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation successfully intercepted a “potential terrorist attack” that was planned to occur just days later. Multiple individuals have been apprehended in connection with this alleged plot, which was intended to unfold over the Halloween weekend in Michigan.

In a post on the social media platform X, Patel stated, “This morning, the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”

While Patel did not provide specific details about the nature of the planned attack, he assured the public that further information would be released shortly.

This development is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents in Michigan that have been successfully disrupted by authorities.

Earlier this year, the FBI arrested 19-year-old Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, a former member of the Michigan Army National Guard, in connection with a separate alleged plot to attack a U.S. Army base.

Said was arrested in May 2025 on charges including attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to destructive devices. 

Said had allegedly been planning an attack on the Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command facility, also known as the Detroit arsenal, for months. 

Undercover FBI agents posing as ISIS sympathizers worked their way into Said’s network, the agency said, and Said allegedly shared detailed plans of his attack with them. 

“On May 13 – the scheduled day of the attack – Said was arrested after he traveled to an area near (the base) and launched his drone in support of the attack plan,” the FBI wrote in a press release.

 In 2020, a group of men were arrested while preparing to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as revenge for the COVID-19 restrictions her administration had placed on the state. 

The FBI, which stopped that attack before the governor was injured, arrested 13 people in connection with the conspiracy. Of those, 11 were convicted. 

Whitmer wasn’t physically harmed, and the members of the conspiracy, which included several people with ties to domestic militia groups, were arrested in fall 2020 by FBI agents embedded in the group.

“They had no real plan for what to do with the governor if they actually seized her. Paradoxically, this made them more dangerous, not less,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said in a court filing submitted during one of the men’s trials.

The alleged terrorist plot in Michigan is another example of a rising tide of political violence in the U.S. 

Charlie Kirk, who started the Arizona-based political organization Turning Point USA and had been a leader rallying young conservatives for Trump, died Sept. 10 after he was shot during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University.

On June 14, Democrat Melissa Hortman, Minnesota’s state House speaker, and her husband were shot to death in their suburban Minneapolis home in what authorities called an act of targeted political violence.

In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests fled the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg after a man broke into the home and set a fire that caused significant damage. It happened during the Jewish holiday of Passover, and Shapiro is Jewish.

Last year, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during an election campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot in the ear.