Feds say white supremacist leaders of “Terrorgram” group plotted assassinations, inspired attacks
Washington — Federal prosecutors in California unsealed an indictment Monday charging two people with leading an online group of white supremacists that maintained a list of high-profile targets to assassinate and urging group members to commit hate crimes.
A 37-page indictment filed on Sept. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California alleges that Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison led the group known as “Terrorgram,” a network of channels, group chats and users on the app Telegram, that promote “white supremacist accelerationism.” The ideology is described in court filings as “centered on the belief that the white race is superior,” and that violence and terrorism are needed to spark a race war to speed up the collapse of government and the rise of the “white ethnostate.”
Humber, 34, and Allison, 37, face 15 federal charges, including three counts of soliciting the murder of a federal official, four counts of soliciting hate crimes and one count of conspiring to provide material support for terrorists. Humber is from Elk Grove, California, and Allison is from Boise, Idaho. Both were arrested last Friday and officials said Allison is expected to make his initial appearance in court on Tuesday.
arrest in France last month. French prosecutors allege the platform is being used for criminal purposes, including spreading child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.
In a statement posted on his Telegram channel in recent days, Durov pushed back against claims that the site is “some sort of anarchic paradise” as “absolutely untrue,” but added he made it a “personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things.”
“We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports [and] direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster,” Durove wrote. “However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough.”
Melissa Quinn
Source: cbsnews.com