Four Plots. Four Weeks. The Holiday Terror Attacks FBI Agents Quietly Stopped While Nobody Was Watching.
- 4terror plots stoppedin four weeks during the December 2025 holiday season — ISIS-inspired and far-left attacks — per FBI Director Kash Patel · Source: Fox News / Hannity podcast
- 640plots disrupted in 2025up from 299 in 2020, nearly doubling in five years · 707 arrests · 242 convictions · Source: FBI Director Patel on X, March 2026
- 3threat types documentedISIS-inspired mass-casualty attacks, foreign-terrorist-organization material support, and far-left anti-capitalist domestic bombing plots
- 4states targetedNorth Carolina, Texas, California, and one additional arrest in Pennsylvania — all within a single four-week window
Over four weeks in December 2025, FBI agents stopped four separate terrorist plots targeting Americans on their own soil — ISIS-inspired mass-casualty attacks in North Carolina and Texas, a far-left bombing campaign across Southern California, and an individual in Pennsylvania researching ISIS propaganda for an explosives strike. None of those four arrests made the front page of most national newspapers. Most Americans never heard about them.
FBI Director Kash Patel pulled back the curtain in a Hang Out with Sean Hannitypodcast appearance, describing each case and the tools his bureau deployed to stop them — including an AI triage system he says did not exist at the FBI before he arrived. “We stopped four terrorist attacks in four weeks during the holidays,” Patel told Hannity. “Everything from the ‘Pumpkin Day’ plot all the way through the attacks that were going to happen in Texas, Florida and New York — and we stopped them all.”
The arrests are documented in federal court filings and DOJ press releases. The defendants are presumed innocent pending trial. What is not in dispute: the FBI acted, the charges are real, and four attacks that were planned did not happen.
“AI Was Never Used at the FBI Until We Got There.”
Speaking on the Hang Out with Sean Hannitypodcast, Patel offered the first consolidated public accounting of the four holiday-season disruptions. The FBI director described the bureau's deployment of artificial intelligence for threat triage as a structural change his team brought in after taking over in February 2025. He specifically pointed to a school massacre that was stopped in North Carolina because of a tip processed with AI assistance.
Patel also released year-end counterterrorism statistics for 2025 via his verified X account: 707 arrests, 640 disrupted plots, and 242 convictions— figures he called “a historic year for the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.” The 640-plots figure represents roughly a doubling of the 299 disrupted plots recorded in 2020, according to Fox Baltimore reporting that cited the FBI's own data series.
“We stopped four terrorist attacks in four weeks during the holidays. Everything from the 'Pumpkin Day' plot all the way through the attacks that were going to happen in Texas, Florida and New York — and we stopped them all.”
FBI Director Kash Patel — Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast
Case by Case: What Federal Prosecutors Charged
Each of the four arrests Patel described corresponds to a documented federal case. Below is what the DOJ and federal prosecutors have put on the record.
Turtle Island Liberation Front — Southern California Bombing Plot
On December 12, 2025, the DOJ announced the arrest of Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, of South Los Angeles; Zachary Aaron Page, 32, of Torrance; Dante James Anthony-Gaffield, 24, of South Los Angeles; and Tia Lai, 41, of Glendale. A fifth person was separately arrested in New Orleans for allegedly planning a related attack.
According to prosecutors, Carroll provided co-conspirators an eight-page handwritten document titled “Operation Midnight Sun” detailing a plan to detonate backpack bombs simultaneously at five or more locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight on New Year's Eve in the greater Los Angeles area. The group is described by prosecutors as “far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist.” The four were arrested in San Bernardino County while allegedly constructing and testing explosive devices. Charges include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, providing material support to terrorists, and possession of unregistered firearms. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Source: DOJ OPA press release; ABC News; CBS News; Fox News
ISIS Propaganda / Explosives Research — Philadelphia-Area Arrest
On December 21, 2025, an individual in the Philadelphia area was arrested after law enforcement determined he had been researching ISIS propaganda with the intent to use it in planning an explosives attack campaign, according to FBI Director Patel's public statements and subsequent news reporting. Federal charges were filed; the defendant's name had not been released at the time of the public announcement. The case is separate from a later, more extensively documented Pennsylvania ISIS case in March 2026 (the alleged Gracie Mansion IED plot involving two teenagers).
Source: FBI Director Patel — Hannity podcast; Fox News; Newsweek
John Michael Garza Jr., 21 — Midlothian, Texas — ISIS Bomb Materials
According to a DOJ press release, Garza was charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization after he delivered bomb-making components to an individual he believed was an ISIS operative. In reality, that individual was an undercover FBI agent. Law enforcement arrested Garza shortly after he left the meeting.
The investigation began in mid-October 2025 when an undercover NYPD employee flagged Garza's social media account. Prosecutors allege Garza paid the undercover small sums of cryptocurrency in November and December 2025 believing he was funding ISIS weapons purchases. During the December 29 meeting, Garza allegedly described how to mix the explosive components and offered to send an instructional video. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He is presumed innocent.
Source: DOJ OPA press release; KERA News (Dallas); Daily Caller; Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
Christian Sturdivant, 18 — Mint Hill, N.C. — ISIS-Inspired New Year's Eve Attack
The criminal complaint was filed December 31, 2025 and unsealed after Sturdivant appeared in federal court in Charlotte. According to prosecutors, Sturdivant planned to use knives and hammers to execute a mass-casualty attack at a grocery store and a fast-food restaurant on New Year's Eve in support of ISIS.
Beginning December 12, Sturdivant allegedly communicated with an online covert FBI employee he believed was an ISIS member, declaring “I will do jihad soon” and calling himself “a soldier of the state” — meaning ISIS. On December 14, he sent images of two hammers and a knife, consistent with attack guidance published in ISIS's propaganda magazine. On December 29, law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence and found handwritten documents titled “New Years Attack 2026,” describing a goal of stabbing as many civilians as possible, with a target victim count of “20 to 21.” Sturdivant faces a statutory maximum of 20 years if convicted. He is presumed innocent.
Source: DOJ OPA press release; ABC11 Raleigh-Durham; NBC News; WCNC Charlotte
The Director on AI, Speed, and the Threat That Keeps Him Up at Night
In the Hannity podcast appearance, Patel was unusually specific about tactics. He said the FBI deployed AI to help triage incoming threat tips — a tool he says the prior leadership never deployed. “AI was never used at the FBI until we got there. I'm using it everywhere,” he said, pointing to the North Carolina school-massacre tip as an example where AI accelerated the bureau's response time. He declined to specify the vendor or architecture, citing operational security.
Patel also acknowledged the thing that keeps him up at night is not the plots the FBI knows about — it is the ones they have not yet identified. He described a scenario modeled on 9/11: “multiple coordinated attacks, multiple locations, massive casualties.” The FBI, he said, is “always on the watch” for that kind of synchronized, multi-city operation.
In a February 2026 op-ed for Fox News titled “We have made America safer in just one year,” Patel detailed wider bureau results under the Trump administration: a reported 197% increase in total arrests (34,000 in 2024 to 67,000 in 2025) and disruption of 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises — a 210% increase year over year. Whether those figures hold up to independent audit has not yet been confirmed by an Inspector General or external oversight body.
“AI was never used at the FBI until we got there. I put AI in there. We stopped a school massacre in North Carolina because we got a tip and we were able to triage it with artificial intelligence.”
FBI Director Kash Patel — Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast
2025 was a historic year for the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. 707 arrests. 640 plots disrupted. 242 convictions. When law enforcement is empowered to execute the mission, Americans are safer.
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. More details to come. Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7.
What Changed When Patel Took Over — and What the Record Shows
FBI Director Christopher Wray — who served from August 2017 through January 2025 under both Trump and Biden — left the bureau with an intact institutional record but also with accumulated criticism from both sides of the aisle. Senate Democrats objected to his handling of the Mar-a-Lago search; conservatives accused him of two-track justice in the treatment of cases involving figures connected to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Patel was confirmed by the Senate in February 2025 after a contentious process in which Senate Judiciary Democrats argued he lacked senior law enforcement experience. He arrived with deep national security credentials — having overseen counterterrorism operations on the National Security Council during Trump's first term, including the targeting of al-Qaeda and ISIS senior leadership — but no prior experience running a large federal law enforcement agency.
The counterterrorism disruption numbers Patel released — 640 plots in 2025 versus 299 in 2020 — are his own bureau's figures, not yet independently verified by the FBI's Inspector General. The methodology for counting a “disrupted plot” has varied historically across administrations; FBI OIG audits in past years have flagged inconsistencies in how the bureau classifies domestic versus international threat disruptions. Independent verification of the 2025 figures is pending.
What is not contested: all four of the December 2025 cases described by Patel resulted in documented federal arrests with charges unsealed in federal court. The DOJ press releases for three of the four arrests are publicly available and directly linked in the sources panel below.
Four documented federal cases. Four arrests. Four planned attacks that did not happen during the 2025 holiday season. The FBI Director put his name on the record with specific details — defendants were charged, complaints were unsealed, and court documents are publicly available. The broader claim of 640 disrupted plots in 2025 is Patel's own bureau's figure, announced on his verified X account and cited in wire reporting. The number has not yet been independently audited. The four holiday cases have been.
The mainstream press that routinely covers FBI director statements gave the announcement minimal airtime. The threat record is real regardless of who is telling it.
How the FBI Director's Terror Announcement Landed
The Fox News segment and Patel's year-end statistics drove widespread sharing among conservative media figures and drew muted mainstream coverage. Sean Hannity's X post promoting the full podcast episode — “The terror threat the FBI is watching right now” — circulated widely.
The terror threat the FBI is watching right now. Full episode with FBI Director Kash Patel out now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Kash and his incredible team at the FBI are doing a FANTASTIC job keeping Americans safe. Four terrorist attacks stopped in FOUR WEEKS during the holidays. The Fake News Media doesn't want to cover it — but WE ARE WATCHING, and so is the American public. AMERICA IS SAFE AGAIN!
We stopped four terrorist attacks over the holidays — far-left bombers in California, ISIS sympathizers in Texas and North Carolina, and an explosives researcher in Pennsylvania. Four plots. Four arrests. America is safer. The mission continues.