The Biden-Harris Justice Department has accused a man and a woman of running an anti-government terrorist group on Telegram, to espouse violence, promote "white supremacy," and incite a race war in the United States and overseas against immigrants, gays, blacks, and Jews.
The indictment was unsealed soon after Vice President Kamala Harris promised to crack down on "harmful" comments on social media if she is elected in November, to "save our democracy."
It appears that these conspirators were on the Fed's radar for some time and were even the target of an exclusive published by the Huffington Post in May 2023.
Dallas Erin Humber of California and Matthew Robert Allison of Idaho, two alleged white nationalists, were charged on Sept. 9th with running the "Terrorgram Collective," a network of channels on the encrypted social media platform, according to the unsealed federal indictment. Humber is a self-described 33-year-old neo-nazi graphic artist and a former dildo saleswoman who happens to go by the online screen name, "Miss Gorehound."
Prosecutors accused the two alleged extremists of plotting to kill "high value" targets, like politicians and government officials, and destroy government infrastructure. "The defendant's goal, the indictment charges, was to ignite a race war, accelerate the collapse of what they viewed as an irreparably corrupt government, and bring about a white ethno state," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, chief of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, at a joint press conference with Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen yesterday. "'As the indictment lays out, defendants use the internet platform Telegram to post messages promoting their white supremacist accelerationism."
The two Biden DOJ officials told ABC News in an exclusive interview that "white supremacist inspired extremism" was the "single most lethal" domestic threat at this time, but that federal law enforcement is adapting to increasing efforts by these groups to plot terrorist acts on social media platforms. "The threat of domestic terrorism is on the rise inside the United States, and acts of violence carried out by white supremacists is the single most lethal type of domestic violent extremism that we see in the country right now," claimed Olson.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of California said that the two suspects took over the Terrorgram network in summer 2022 from the previous leader after he was arrested for terrorism charges.
Allison and Humber were both charged with fifteen criminal counts, including the solicitation of hate crimes, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, attempting to recruit individuals for the killing and doxing of alleged enemies like federal officials, judges, and politicians, and making interstate threats. The indictment stated that Allison and Humber also produced a white supremacist propaganda film that celebrated every racist incident across the U.S. since 1968.
“These are not mere words,” said Olson, adding, “Terrorgram users have carried out, or planned, attacks after being guided by Terrorgram publications and instructional videos."
The pair allegedly shared instructional manuals and videos on how to make bombs, chemical weapons, and other deadly devices, and told their followers to be covert in their operations. The DOJ also charged Allison with maintaining a Telegram channel called "The List," which targeted members of Congress, federal judges, U.S. attorneys, and local officials, that was allegedly disseminated to his followers. Allison called for members of "The List" to "take action now" and "do your part," by posting the names, addresses, and photographs of the individuals targeted for assassination. After members of the group were told that eliminating their targets would put them on a path to sainthood, several volunteered to participate in targeted attacks, according to the indictment.
"With the case that we have brought here, we're on the highest end of the Richter scale," Clarke told ABC News. "These are people who are exploiting these social media platforms to, you know, to the greatest extent possible, who are seeking to give so-called 'sainthood' to other people who will carry out these attacks. They're giving out bomb-making instructions. They're putting together hit lists. We hope that this action sends a very strong message that you can't hide behind a computer screen."
Federal prosecutors said at least three recorded attempts by members of the Telegram-based group to carry out attacks across the globe have occurred.
The first was by Juraj Krajčík, a 19-year-old man from Slovakia claiming to be inspired by Terrorgram, who killed two people at a gay bar in Bratislava before killing himself.
The DOJ accuse Humber of being in touch with the killer three months before the attacks and taking credit for inspiring the attack, and of since called him the group's "first Saint."
According to the Huffington Post, Krajčík wrote, “Terrorgram Collective, you know who you are…. Building the future of the White revolution, one publication at a time”
Humber allegedly narrated Krajčík's manifesto into an audiobook after promising to do so if he actually would carry out his attack.
“This is kind of a huge deal,” Humber says in a brief introduction to the audiobook, “but in case you haven’t heard, on Oct. 12, 2022, St. Juraj Krajčík, Tarrant’s sixth disciple and Terrorgram’s first saint, posted this manifesto online before opening fire on f****ts at an LGBT coffee shop in Bratislava, Slovakia.”
“We mourn St. Krajčík’s death,” she added, “but his legacy is immortalized through words and action … His manifesto is absolute f*****g fire and I think you’ll really enjoy it. If you’ve been around here a while, it should resonate intensely with your very soul. So without further ado, let’s get this party started, Terror Bros."
In July, 18-year-old Andrew Taskhistov of New Jersey was arrested for allegedly encouraging members of the group to attack an energy facility, while another 18-year-old member from Turkey live-streamed himself stabbing five people outside a mosque.
Meanwhile, Clarke accused Telegram of enabling the defendants to promote white nationalism by giving them more reach and said that the indictment was the government's response to “the new technological face of White supremacist violence. “Technology evolves, and we keep up," she added.
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The indictment comes after Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, was arrested last month in Paris for allegedly failing to comply with French demands to curb illegal content on his app, which many see as an excuse to stifle any online dissent. His arrest sparked an outcry from free speech advocates and leaders in the tech community, with many suggesting that his arrest was an effort to control or access communications on the platform. There have been rumors that French law enforcement arrested Durov at the request of officials in the Biden Administration.
Durov has called the charges against him “misguided” and promised to prevent criminals from abusing his company's social media platform.
He has since made some changes to Telegram after he was released from prison last week.
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