The Justice Department on Monday charged two California men who were alleged leaders of a white supremacist group that sought to spark a race war in the United States and allegedly plotted to kill “high-value” targets and incite its followers to carry out terrorist attacks around the world.
Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison are believed to have become leaders of a group calling itself “Terrorgram” that formed on the encrypted social media site.
The two men were charged with a host of federal crimes, including soliciting the murder of a federal official, disclosing information about federal officials and making interstate threats.
“The defendants’ goal, according to the charges, was to start a race war, accelerate the collapse of what they saw as an irredeemably corrupt government, and bring about a white ethnic state. As the indictment details, the defendants used the internet platform Telegram to post messages promoting their white supremacist accelerationism,” Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said at a news conference Monday.
The indictment alleges that the group “solicited terrorist attacks,” including against perceived “enemies,” government infrastructure and “high-value” targets such as politicians and government officials.
According to the indictment, “the list” includes U.S. senators, federal judges, U.S. prosecutors and local officials.
When distributing the so-called list, Allision allegedly included comments such as “act now” and “do your part.”
In at least three separate instances detailed by prosecutors in the indictment, users of the group allegedly carried out violent attacks inspired by the chat group.
One of the users was a 19-year-old Slovakian man who killed two people at a Bratislava LGBT bar before killing himself, according to the Justice Department. The indictment alleges that the attacker sent a manifesto directly to Humber, which Humber then narrated and turned into an audiobook.
Both Humber and Allison later claimed responsibility for the attack and celebrated the attacker as the group’s “first saint,” according to the indictment.
Another case highlighted in the indictment involves the July arrest of Andrew Taskhistov, an 18-year-old from New Jersey who was allegedly incited to plan an attack on an energy facility because of his membership in the group. A third case highlighted in the indictment involves an 18-year-old from Turkey who allegedly live-streamed his own stabbing of five people outside a mosque and then shared several posts from the group.
According to the Justice Department, part of the group’s alleged strategy was to target critical infrastructure.
According to the indictment, Humber and Allison also created a documentary celebrating racist incidents in the country beginning in 1968.
The couple also allegedly stressed the need to remain discreet in their operations and, according to the indictment,…
