Former U.S. attorney Rachael Rollins reportedly targeted by white supremacists for assassination

Two people were arrested for allegedly leading an online group where race-based attacks were celebrated.

Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against two people for allegedly leading an online white supremacist network that encouraged members to commit violence in the interest of starting a race war. Former Massachusetts U.S. attorney Rachael Rollins was reportedly one of their targets.

In a 15-count indictment, 34-year-old Dallas Humber and 37-year-old Matthew Allison were charged with soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Humber is a resident of Elk Grove, California, while Allison lives in Boise, Idaho. Both were arrested on Sept. 6.

“Today’s indictment charges the defendants with leading a transnational terrorist group dedicated to attacking America’s critical infrastructure, targeting a hit list of our country’s public officials, and carrying out deadly hate crimes — all in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement after the arrests. “Today’s arrests are a warning that committing hate-fueled crimes in the darkest corners of the internet will not hide you, and soliciting terrorist attacks from behind a screen will not protect you. The United States Department of Justice will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”

The two allegedly led a network known as “The Terrorgram Collective,” which operated on the digital messaging platform Telegram. The details of their alleged actions are contained in a 37-page indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. As part of their efforts to incite violence, Humber and Allison allegedly helped compile a hit list of “high–value” targets for assassination.

The identities of the officials on this list were redacted from the indictment before it was unsealed. But The Boston Globe reportedly viewed unredacted images of the Terrorgram posts that list Rollins’s name and address, along with a racial slur.

After serving as Suffolk district attorney from 2019 to 2022, Rollins became the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Rollins resigned in May 2023 after a series of alleged ethical violations came to light.

Other people on the hit list included a U.S. senator, a federal judge, various state officials, and the leaders of private companies. Humber and Allison allegedly used their platform to encourage attacks on those people and others based on their race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin. They allegedly provided both practical advice for people who said they were planning attacks as well as encouragement.

One of the ways the Terrorgram leaders encouraged others was by exalting white supremacist attackers as “saints” of the white race, according to authorities. The Terrorgram leaders published an “encyclopedia” of these attackers, detailing what kind of attacks they committed and quotes from manifestos they left behind. A broader “sainthood” culture was allegedly fostered by Humber and Allison through various means, including posting graphics about how to plan and carry out mass murders.

“There’s no love like the love we fell for every accelerationist mass shooter,” one post read.

Many messages allegedly sent and re-posted by Humber and Allison are included in the indictment, frequently alongside phrases like “hail holy terror” or “make it count,” an encouragement to kill as many people as possible during an attack.

Terrorgram was directly linked to several attacks and potential attacks, according to the indictment. In October 2022, a 19-year-old Slovakian man killed two people at an LGBT bar before killing himself. In a manifesto, he explicitly thanked Terrorgram for encouraging him and “building the future of the White revolution.” Humber and Allison allegedly communicated with him before the attack, and took credit afterward, praising him as “Terrorgram’s very first Saint.” Humber later narrated an audiobook made from the manifesto.

In August, an 18-year-old Turkish man broadcast live video of himself stabbing five people outside a mosque. He shared many Terrorgram publications before the attack, according to the indictment. Humber allegedly posted about the attack afterward, saying that the attacker deserved celebration and that “anyone claiming to be an accelerationist” should support similar attacks in the future.