California woman behind Telegram’s ‘Terrorgram Collective’ charged

A California woman and an Idaho man accused of leading a terrorist group known as the Terrorgram Collective have been charged with encouraging their followers to kill government officials and commit hate crimes, federal prosecutors said Monday.

According to a 37-page indictment filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, using the digital messaging app Telegram, allegedly created and distributed several “Terrorgram” videos and publications in which they provided specific advice on how to commit crimes, glorified white supremacist attacks and provided lists of targets for attack.

The group’s alleged targets included federal, state and local U.S. officials — including a state senator, a district judge and a former U.S. attorney — as well as leaders of private companies and nongovernmental organizations. Prosecutors say they were targeted because of their race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity. Each target was given 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.

Terrorgram leaders viewed each person on their list as “an enemy of the white supremacist accelerationist cause,” 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 Friday, face 15 counts of inciting to commit hate crimes, inciting to kill federal officials and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism, according to a Justice Department statement.

According to the indictment, Allison and Humber worked with others to create, edit, and distribute a digital publication known as “The Hard Reset,” which contained instructions on how to make bombs and explosives, including napalm, thermite, chlorine gas, pipe bombs, and dirty bombs. Humber allegedly narrated the publication and distributed it as an audiobook.

Humber and Allison allegedly produced and shared “White Terror,” a nearly 30-minute documentary that chronicled 105 white supremacist attacks that occurred between 1968 and 2021. Prosecutors say Humber was the narrator of the documentary, which began with a message calling the attackers “saints” and “the best of our brothers.”

The couple’s use of Telegram isn’t the first time the app has come under scrutiny by law enforcement. Founder and CEO Pavel Durov was detained and charged last month by French authorities over allegations the platform was used for drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes.

In comments posted on his Telegram account, Durov called it a “misguided approach” to accusing him of crimes committed by third parties. He cited “growing pains” on Telegram, which he said has 950 million users, as making it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.

Durov’s arrest has sparked a debate about freedom of speech and criminal activity on the Internet.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called the arrests of Humber and Allison “a warning that committing hate crimes in the darkest corners of the internet will not hide you, and that inciting terrorist attacks from behind a screen will not protect you.”

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said the case “reflects the department’s response to the new technological face of white supremacist violence.”

“The technology is evolving, and we’re keeping up,” Clarke said. “These charges reveal that the department will pursue violent white supremacists with every legal means at our disposal.”

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictment.

Humber and Allison allegedly promoted “white supremacist accelerationism,” an ideology that prosecutors said “is based on the beliefs that the white race is superior; that society is irredeemably corrupt and beyond salvation through political action; and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and hasten the collapse of government and the rise of a white ethnic state.”

According to the indictment, Humber and Allison joined Terrorgram in 2019. They began running the group in the summer of 2022, after one of its previous leaders 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 power plants, “which Terrorgram believes will lead to a race war.”

Allison allegedly told users to “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 induced to commit violence by Humber, Allison and other members of the collective.

They included a man who shot three people, killing two, outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, another who planned to attack an energy utility in New Jersey, and a third who stabbed five people near a mosque in Turkey.

According to prosecutors, after the Slovakia attack, the 19-year-old responsible for the attack sent Allison a manifesto in which he thanked Terrorgram for the inspiration and guidance.

Humber allegedly said in a group chat that included the attacker: “If you became a Saint, I would read your book.”

She kept her word.

Prosecutors said Humber and Allison took credit for and worshiped the attacker who committed suicide, calling him the “first saint of Terrorism” and releasing a manifesto in audiobook form.

If found guilty on all counts, Humber and Allison face up to 220 years in prison.