Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke delivered remarks today announcing charges against leaders of a transnational terrorist group. Clarke was joined by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Philip Talbert for the Eastern District of California, and FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Timothy Stone.
A federal grand jury in California has charged two leaders of the Terrorgram Collective with 15 criminal counts. The indictment accuses Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, and Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, of conspiracy, soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, transmitting interstate threatening communications, distributing bomb-making instructions and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
The indictment alleges that the defendants solicited others to engage in hate crimes and terrorist attacks against Black, immigrant, LGBT and Jewish people. They also allegedly targeted government infrastructure and politicians as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organizations. According to the indictment, their goal was to ignite a race war and bring about a white ethnostate through "accelerationism."
"This indictment reflects the department’s response to the new technological face of white supremacist violence," said Clarke. "These charges reveal that the department will come after violent white supremacists with every legitimate means at our disposal."
Clarke detailed that defendants used Telegram to promote their white supremacist views. The platform was used to solicit bias-motivated attacks targeting victims based on race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Defendant Humber is accused of promoting a "saint" culture among mass shooters. According to Clarke's remarks: "This 'canonization' made aspiring attackers more willing to perpetrate violence." An example cited involved a Terrorgram user who livestreamed an attack outside a mosque in Turkey.
The indictment also links defendants to inspiring a Slovakian man who shot three people at an LGBT bar in Bratislava before killing himself while being pursued by police.
Count one charges conspiracy among themselves and others to solicit hate crimes and convey threats across state or international borders. Count two alleges solicitation of bodily harm against Black individuals or those associated with them. Counts three through five allege solicitation against Jewish people, immigrants and LGBT individuals respectively.
Quoting George Washington from 1790 about giving "to bigotry no sanction," Clarke emphasized that hate crimes have no place in society: "Everyone has the right to live without fear of violence based on who they are."
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen then addressed additional aspects related to national security.