Feds say white supremacist leaders of "Terrorgram" group plotted assassinations, inspired attacks

Washington — Federal prosecutors in California unsealed an indictment Monday charging two people with leading an online group of white supremacists that maintained a list of high-profile targets to assassinate and urging group members to commit hate crimes.

A 37-page indictment filed on Sept. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California alleges that Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison led the group known as "Terrorgram," a network of channels, group chats and users on the app Telegram, that promote "white supremacist accelerationism." The ideology is described in court filings as "centered on the belief that the white race is superior," and that violence and terrorism are needed to spark a race war to speed up the collapse of government and the rise of the "white ethnostate."

Humber, 34, and Allison, 37, face 15 federal charges, including three counts of soliciting the murder of a federal official, four counts of soliciting hate crimes and one count of conspiring to provide material support for terrorists. Humber is from Elk Grove, California, and Allison is from Boise, Idaho. Both were arrested last Friday and officials said Allison is expected to make his initial appearance in court on Tuesday.

Humber pleaded not guilty during an arraignment before a federal magistrate judge Monday. A detention hearing is set for Friday.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the indictment shows the "new technological face of white supremacist violence."

"Terrorgram"

Prosecutors allege that Humber and Allison took over the group in 2022, after one of its leaders was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses. As the new leaders of the so-called Terrorgram Collective, the indictment claims that the defendants spread videos and publications called "The Hard Reset," "White Terror" and "The List," and solicited group members to carry out attacks against "racial enemies" and on crucial infrastructure. 

"The List" is described in the indictment as a hit list of "high-value" targets for assassination that included their names, addresses and photographers. Among those included were a U.S. senator, a federal district judge and a former U.S. attorney, as well as state and local officials, and leaders of private companies and nongovernmental organizations, according to the indictment.

Court filings allege that Allison encouraged Terrorgram members to kill those targets, telling them to "take action now" and "do your part." The attacks focused on people who the group viewed as "perpetuating an irredeemable society" and whose murders would sow chaos and speed up the collapse of the government, according to the indictment.

In addition to the hit list, prosecutors said Allison and Humber provided instructions for making and detonating bombs, and shared a five-step instructional video that explained in part how to find the location of a "federal building" that would be "a suitable target" and how to avoid being caught by law enforcement.

Federal investigators alleged the pair pushed users to "follow through with planned attacks" and urged their followers to "immortalize yourself in the Pantheon." According to charging documents, some of the members of Humber and Allison's online group were inspired to carry out attacks across the globe.

The two frequently used racial slurs and other derogatory language when describing victims of attacks.

Prosecutors said multiple attacks or planned attacks in recent years can be tied to the defendants' group, including an October 2022 shooting in Slovakia at an LGBTQ bar where two people were killed and an attack in Turkey where five people were stabbed outside of a mosque. Investigators in the U.S. also foiled a plot in New Jersey where an 18-year-old was planning to attack an energy facility in July, prosecutors said.

The two produced and shared a 24-minute documentary called "White Terror" that celebrated 105 white supremacist attacks that took place between 1968 and 2021, court filings said. Humber narrated the documentary, which ended with a message to "the saints of tomorrow," reassuring them attacks they perpetrated would be lauded, according to prosecutors.

They were in the process of creating "The Saint Encyclopedia" celebrating white supremacist attackers and urging Terrorgram users to commit attacks, the Justice Department said. Humber also allegedly shared a graphic of "Sainthood Criteria" and the "Path to Sainthood," according to the indictment, and shared at least one message that she said was designed to radicalize a Terrorgram user. 

Announcing the charges Monday, Justice Department officials alleged Allison and Humber were not just "inspirational" in their planning, but sought to inspire attacks and in some cases, equipped would-be attackers with actionable plans and pushed their members to follow through. 

"These are not mere words," Matt Olsen, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division said Monday. 

A spokesperson for Telegram said "calls to violence have no place on Telegram's platform. Moderators removed several channels that used variations of the 'Terrorgram' name when they were discovered years ago. Similar content is banned whenever it appears." 

The indictment comes in the wake of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's arrest in France last month. French prosecutors allege the platform is being used for criminal purposes, including spreading child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

In a statement posted on his Telegram channel in recent days, Durov pushed back against claims that the site is "some sort of anarchic paradise" as "absolutely untrue," but added he made it a "personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things." 

"We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports [and] direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster," Durove wrote. "However, we hear voices saying that it's not enough."