A California woman and an Idaho man accused of leading a terrorist group known as the “Terrorgram Collective” have been charged with soliciting their followers to assassinate government officials and commit hate crimes, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Utilizing the digital messaging app Telegram, Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, Calif., and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, allegedly created and circulated several “Terrorgram” videos and publications providing specific advice for carrying out crimes, celebrating white supremacist attacks and providing a hit list of assassination targets, according to a 37-page indictment filed by the U.S Attorney’s office in Sacramento.
Among those on the terror group’s alleged target list were U.S. federal, state and local officials — including a state senator, a district court judge and a former U.S. attorney — along with leaders of private companies and nongovernmental organizations. Prosecutors say they were targeted because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity. Each target received a “list card” with their name, home address and photograph, according to the indictment.
Humber’s federal public defender declined to comment. Allison’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
The Terrorgram leaders considered each person on their list “an enemy of the cause of white supremacist accelerationism,” according to the indictment. One federal official was described as an “Anti-White, Anti-gun, Jewish senator,” prosecutors said, while a judge was listed as “an invader” from a foreign country and the entry for a U.S. attorney included a racial slur.
Humber and Allison, who were arrested on Friday, face 15 counts for soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to the Justice Department.
Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison posted messages and images celebrating white supremacist attacks, including the following fake newspaper cover.
(U.S. Department of Justice)
According to the indictment, Allison and Humber worked together with others to create, edit and disseminate a digital publication known as “The Hard Reset,” which provided instructions for making bombs and explosives, including napalm, thermite, chlorine gas, pipe bombs and dirty bombs. Humber allegedly narrated the publication and disseminated it in audiobook form.
Humber and Allison also allegedly produced and shared “White Terror,” a nearly 30-minute documentary that celebrated 105 white supremacist attacks that happened between 1968 and 2021. Prosecutors say Humber narrated the documentary, which opened with a message referring to the attackers as “Saints” and “the best of our brothers.”
The pair’s use of Telegram is not the first time the app has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement. Founder and Chief Executive Pavel Durov was detained and charged last month by French authorities over accusations that the platform has been used for drug trafficking, money laundering and other offenses.
In comments made on his Telegram account, Durov called it a “misguided approach” to charge him with crimes committed by third parties. He cited “growing pains” on Telegram, which he said has 950 million users, as having made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.
Durov’s arrest spawned a debate over free speech and criminal activity online.
Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland speaks during a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force at the Department of Justice on Sept. 4.
(Mark Schiefelbein / AP)
In a statement, Atty. Gen. Merrick B. Garland called the arrests of Humber and Allison “a warning that committing hate-fueled crimes in the darkest corners of the internet will not hide you, and soliciting terrorist attacks from behind a screen will not protect you.”
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division, said the case “reflects the department’s response to the new technological face of white supremacist violence.”
“Technology evolves, and we keep up,” Clarke said. “These charges reveal that the department will come after violent white supremacists with every legitimate means at our disposal.”
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the indictment.
Humber and Allison allegedly promoted “white supremacist accelerationism,” an ideology that prosecutors said is “centered on the belief that the white race is superior; that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action; and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and accelerate the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate.”
According to the indictment, Humber and Allison joined Terrorgram in 2019. They began to run the group in the summer of 2022, after one previous leader was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses and another learned he was the target of a terrorism-related investigation.
Prosecutors said Allison and Humber called for attacks on infrastructure, such as federal buildings and energy facilities, “which Terrorgram believes will ignite a race war.”
Allison allegedly told users “Take Action Now,” “Do your part,” and “Remember change starts with you. No one is coming to save us.”
At least three people were allegedly inspired or guided to commit violence by Humber, Allison and other members of the collective.
On or about July 8, 2022, Humber posted this graphic setting forth Terrorgram’s “Sainthood Criteria.”
(U.S. Department of Justice)
Among them was an individual who shot three people, killing two, outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, another who planned an attack on energy facilities in New Jersey and a third person who stabbed five people near a mosque in Turkey.
After the Slovakia attack, prosecutors said, the 19-year-old responsible sent a manifesto to Allison that thanked Terrorgram for inspiring and guiding him.
Humber allegedly told a group chat that included the attacker, “If you became a Saint I’d narrate your book.”
She kept her word.
Prosecutors said Humber and Allison took credit and celebrated the attacker, who died by suicide, as “Terrogram’s first Saint,” and released the manifesto as an audiobook.
If convicted of all charges, Humber and Allison each face up to 220 years in prison.