Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke Delivers Remarks Announcing Charges Against Leaders of Transnational Terrorist Group

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good afternoon. My name is Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. Joining me are Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Philip Talbert for the Eastern District of California and FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Timothy Stone. Our offices have collaborated closely on this matter.

Today, a federal grand jury in California charged two leaders of a transnational terrorist group called the Terrorgram Collective on 15 criminal counts. The indictment accuses Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, and Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, of conspiracy, soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, transmitting interstate threatening communications, distributing bombmaking instructions and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

The indictment alleges that defendants solicited others to engage in hate crimes and terrorist attacks against Black, immigrant, LGBT and Jewish people, to attack government infrastructure and to target politicians and government officials, as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organizations. The defendants’ goal, the indictment charges, was to ignite a race war, “accelerate” the collapse of what they viewed as an irreparably corrupt government and bring about a white ethnostate. As the indictment lays out, defendants used the internet platform Telegram to post messages promoting their white supremacist “accelerationism.”

This indictment reflects the department’s response to the new technological face of white supremacist violence — as those seeking mass violence expand their online reach to encourage, solicit and facilitate terrorist activities. Technology evolves, and we keep up. These charges reveal that the department will come after violent white supremacists with every legitimate means at our disposal.

I will address the hate crime charges in the indictment. Assistant Attorney General Olsen will describe the counts related to national security. U.S. Attorney Talbert will discuss next steps and FBI Deputy Assistant Director Stone will discuss law enforcement efforts and collaboration.

The indictment accuses defendants of using Terrorgram to solicit others to commit bias-motivated attacks targeting victims because of their race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity. The indictment charges that defendants identified targets for attack, urged followers to kill those targets, explained how to do so and celebrated the perpetrators of past terrorist attacks by developing a so-called “saint” culture. Defendant Humber explained that this “canonization of mass shooters” made aspiring attackers more willing to perpetrate violence to attain “sainthood” and inspire future attacks. According to the indictment, this strategy proved effective. A Terrorgram user who livestreamed himself stabbing five people outside a mosque in Turkey stated in his manifesto that he wanted to be recognized as a saint, cited Terrorgram publications and encouraged others to livestream their attacks to inspire future saints.

The defendants are charged with actually soliciting hate crimes, not abstract advocacy or wishful thinking. According to the indictment, the defendants expressly took credit for inspiring and guiding a 19-year-old Slovakian man who sent a violent manifesto to the defendants before shooting three people — killing two of them — at an LGBT Bar in Bratislava, and then killing himself while being pursued by the police.

Based on these and other actions, count one of the 15-count indictment charges that defendants conspired among themselves and with other people to solicit hate crimes, to dox federal employees and to convey threats in interstate or foreign commerce.

Count two alleges that defendants solicited others to cause bodily injury to people because of their race, specifically, because they were Black or were whites who associated with Black people and therefore were, according to defendants, “race traitors.”

Count three accuses defendants of soliciting others to commit bias-motivated attacks against Jewish people.

Count four alleges solicitation of such attacks against immigrants and count five solicitation of such attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

In 1790, George Washington stated the aspiration that the new nation should “give[] to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” That remains a fundamental tenet of our democracy.

Hate crimes fueled by bigotry and white supremacy, and amplified by the weaponization of digital messaging platforms, are on the rise and have no place in our society. Everyone has the right to live without fear of violence based on who they are, where they are from, how they worship or who they love. The department will protect that right, and we will resolutely strive to bring to justice those who seek to threaten, undermine or extinguish it.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen will speak with you now.