Leaders of white nationalist platform charged for allegedly inspiring attacks
Federal prosecutors accused a man and a woman of using a white nationalist online platform to direct followers to kill immigrants and Black and Jewish people around the world as they sought to ignite a race war.
The federal indictment unsealed Monday in the Eastern District of California charges 37-year-old Matthew Robert Allison, of Idaho, and 34-year-old Dallas Erin Humber, of California, with 15 crimes, including solicitation of hate crimes, solicitation of the murder of federal officials and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
According to the indictment, Allison and Humber were leaders in the Terrorgram Collective - a network of channels that are part of the Telegram Messenger communication platform that promotes white nationalism. The two suspects took over the Terrorgram in summer 2022 after the previous leader was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses.
Prosecutors allege that the two defendants used the platform to publish a list of people that they wanted their followers to kill because of their race, religion, gender identity or national origin. The list included the names, addresses and photographs of the targets and instructed followers that assassinating people in the name of Terrorgram would be their path to sainthood, according to authorities.
Among the people on the list was an “Anti-White, Anti-gun, Jewish Senator,” according to the indictment. A federal judge who was called “an invader” on the list was targeted because of a ruling on an immigration issue. A federal U.S. attorney, who was called a racial slur on the platform, was also targeted.
Prosecutors said followers inspired by Terrorgram carried out deadly attacks.
According to authorities, in October 2022, a 19-year-old from Slovakia killed two people at an LGBT bar and then killed himself. The attacker’s manifesto thanked Terrogram for inspiring him. The Slovakian, authorities said, had contact with Allison and Humber in the year leading up to the attack and, about three months before the killings, Humber told the attacker in a group chat that she would narrate their books if they murdered people in the name of Terrorgram.
In August 2024, a teenager from Turkey live-streamed himself stabbing five people outside a mosque after he had posted on Terrorgram that morning to “Come see how much humans I can cleanse.”
Allison and Humber also encouraged followers to attack American infrastructure to “ignite a race war and help accelerate the collapse of government and society,” according to the indictment. In July 2024, according to the indictment, an 18-year-old in the United States active in Terrorgram chats was arrested for plotting an attack on an energy facility in New Jersey.
“These are not mere words,” Matt Olsen, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, said on a call with reporters Monday announcing the unsealing of the indictment.
The indictment states that some followers inquired on the platform whether the leaders had any attacks they wanted them to carry out in certain locations. The leaders also shared instructional manuals and videos on how to create bombs, chemical weapons and weapons of mass destructions.
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, told reporters that the online platform helped the defendants reach more people as they promoted white nationalism, and that the indictment is the department’s response to “the new technological face of white supremacist violence.”
“Technology evolves, and we keep up,” Clarke said.