US says white supremacist group tried to incite followers on Telegram to spark race war

A white supremacist group that branded itself the Terrorgram Collective drew up a list of high-profile assassination targets including at least one senator and a district court judge, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Monday.

Prosecutors allege that the two leading agitators of the group incited followers on the messaging app Telegram to commit hate crimes against Black and Jewish people, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, face 15 counts each of soliciting hate crimes and providing material support to terrorism. US justice department lawyers filed the 37-page indictment in district court in the eastern district of California on Thursday.

It alleges the pair encouraged attacks on government infrastructure, energy facilities and other buildings “to ignite a race war and help accelerate the collapse of government and society”.

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They produced a digital dossier for followers called the Hard Reset setting out the group’s ideology and containing instructions for making bombs and carrying out other terror attacks, as well as tactics for evading law enforcement, prosecutors said.

They also produced a list of “high-value” targets for assassination, they said. The sitting US senator and judge allegedly targeted were not named in the indictment, but were perceived by the accused “as enemies of the white supremacist cause” and therefore legitimate prey.

A former US attorney, state and municipal officials and leaders of a number of private companies and non-government organizations also featured on the list. Each target had a digital card with their name, address, photograph and an image of their residence if available, the filing states.

Each was targeted because of “race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation and/or gender identity”.

The accused pair’s actions, prosecutors said, were more than just prospective and had global reach. They said several attacks were traced to the group, including the shooting deaths of two people at an LGBTQ+ bar in Slovakia in October 2022; and the stabbings of five people outside a mosque in Turkey last month.

The Telegram app has come under fire recently as its CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France on 24 August as part of a cybercrime inquiry linked to Telegram’s failure to properly fight crime on the app , including the spread of child sexual abuse material.

Telegram has denied allegations that its platform facilitates illegal activities such as terrorism, fraud and child exploitation.

Federal agents in New Jersey also foiled a planned attack on an energy facility by an unnamed 18-year-old in July this year.

The two accused are in custody and awaiting a court date, officials said at a media conference on Monday.

“The federal government is adapting and evolving its strategy to confront hate,” said Kristen Clarke, the head of the justice department’s civil rights division.

“Whether carried out on our streets or perpetrated by way of online platforms, we will follow the facts where they lead and use every tool available to hold perpetrators of hate accountable.”