Shutdown chaos could unleash accused terrorist boss back onto the streets

The court-appointed lawyers for a defendant described by the government as a leader of a “transnationalist terrorist group” want a federal judge to dismiss the case against their client because they haven’t gotten paid in almost four months.

John Balazs and Kyle Knapp argue in a motion filed in federal court last month that alleged Terrorgram leader Matthew Robert Allison’s Sixth Amendment rights are being violated because Congress failed “to fund counsel and provide the resources necessary to adequately defend the charges against him.”

Funds to pay court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants — known as Criminal Justice Act, or CJA panel attorneys — along with investigators, experts, interpreters and other support personnel, ran out in July. They were supposed to be reimbursed at the beginning of the new fiscal year, but continue to work without pay due to the government shutdown.

Like other CJA panel attorneys, Balazs and Knapp said they have been working without payment since early July.

Thomas Brzozowski, who formerly served as counsel for domestic terrorism at the Department of Justice, told Raw Story the likelihood court will agree to throw out Allison’s case is likely remote, but the funding crisis could slow down the prosecution.

“Given that there are likely hundreds of similarly situated defendants around the country, I doubt that the prosecutions would be fatally imperiled, but they very well could face considerable delay,” Brzozowski said. “We’ll have to keep an eye on how this case develops.”

Judge Dena M. Coggins hasn’t ruled on the motion, but she pushed back a status hearing that had scheduled in federal court in Sacramento, Calif. by two weeks — from Oct. 31 to Nov. 14.

Lauren Harwood, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California declined to comment.

The federal courts alerted Congress in a letter in April that due to a $129 million shortfall payments to CJA panel attorneys and support providers would have to be suspended in July.

The letter — co-signed by Robert J. Conrad Jr., director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts — warned that as a result of payment delays, “these attorneys and their experts could decline to accept future CJA appointments by a court, potentially creating unlawful delays in the constitutional right of defendants to a speedy and fair trial.”

“The right to legal counsel and a fair trial are the bedrock of our justice system,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, told Raw Story. “Failure to fund the federal defenders puts cases at risk. So, if Congress wants to fund law and order, it should ensure adequate funding for federal defenders to uphold the Constitution.

“The shutdown is compounding this problem and preventing millions of hardworking people from getting paid,” Reed added. “The solution is for Republicans to come to the table and negotiate.”

Although Allison and his co-defendant Dallas Erin Humber were initially charged under the Biden administration, the Donald Trump’s Justice Department has signaled at least outwardly that it remains committed to the case. In addition to a prosecutor in the Eastern District of California, the department has two attorneys from the Civil Rights Division and one from the National Security Division assigned to the case.

When a third Terrorgram member, Noah Lamb, described by the government as a co-conspirator of Allison and Humber, was indicted in July, the Department of Justice press release included a quote from Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s assistant attorney general for civil rights.

“The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is committed to aggressively pursuing those who engage in hate-fueled conspiracies and terrorist threats,” Dhillon said at the time. “We will use every tool available to protect the civil rights of all Americans and ensure justice for those targeted by such heinous acts.”

Responding to a question about whether Dhillon is concerned that the funding crisis could compromise the Terrorgram prosecution, Natalie Baldasarre, a department spokesperson, told Raw Story: “No comment beyond our filings.”

In recent months, Trump and top officials in the administration have argued that the “radical left” is overwhelmingly responsible for rising political violence in the country, and during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” following the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Trump appeared to dismiss concerns about right-wing extremism, even offering justification.

“I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. “The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy.”

The government describes Terrorgram, the group it alleges that Allison led alongside co-defendant Humber, as an online network that promotes “white supremacist accelerationism,” described in the criminal complaint as an ideology centered on the belief “that violence and terrorism is necessary to ignite a race war and ‘accelerate’ the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate.”

To achieve its program of white revolution and domination, Terrorgram promotes mass shootings, industrial sabotage and political assassinations. The U.S. government has linked the group to attacks in the United States, Slovakia, Turkey and Brazil. Prosecutors also allege that Terrorgram was behind foiled plots to bomb an electrical substation in New Jersey and assassinate a politician in Australia.

The government alleges that Allison, as a leader of Terrogram, collaborated with Lamb and Humber to create a “kill list” targeting a federal judge and retired U.S. attorney, among others, and that he operated online channels and archives to disseminate it.

“The List would do for killing what the printing press had done for literacy,” Allison allegedly wrote in one post promoting the document.

The criminal complaint against Allison and Humber highlights one of the targets as “Federal Official 1,” described in the document as “an Anti-White, Anti-Gun, Jewish Senator.” Raw Story has obtained a copy of the document, and can confirm that the targeted individual is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Schumer could not be reached for comment for this story.

Allison’s lawyers took aim at the funding priorities of Trump’s Republican allies in Congress in their motion to dismiss.

“For perspective, rather than approve the $120 million shortfall needed to fully fund the judicial branch, and provide adequate funding for CJA panel attorneys, interpreters, investigators and experts, ‘Congress just approved $170 billion for immigration enforcement, and $45 billion alone to build immigration detention facilities,’” they wrote.

Along with Allison’s case, which has been delayed by at least two weeks, a federal judge in Albuquerque, N.M. agreed to put a death penalty case on hold due to concerns about potential constitutional violations arising from the funding crisis.

Lawyers for Labar Tsethlikai, who is accused of multiple counts of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault, told the court in an Oct. 1 filing that lawyers, investigators, mitigation specialists, paralegals and experts on the defense team “can no longer continue to work for free or pay expenses out of their own pocket.”

Due to their inability to pay mitigation specialists, the lawyers wrote that they had “grave concerns about the ability to effectively represent Mr. Tsethlikai as required by the Sixth Amendment and to uncover the necessary mitigating information.”

The government argued in response that “the defense team is required to continue advocating for defendant regardless of the temporary, fleeting lapse in appropriations,” adding that “there is no right to regular, bi-weekly or even monthly pay.”

But Judge David Herrera Urias agreed with the defendant.

“The right to a defense is one of the bedrock principles of this country, and the shutdown has unquestionably impeded defendant’s right to counsel in this case,” he ruled.

Paul Linnenburger, a CJA panel attorney representing a defendant in a separate case in New Mexico, described the funding crisis as “a ticking time bomb.” Echoing the concerns of court officials, Linnenburger told Raw Story he worries that the lapse could cause lasting damage.

“There’s a lot of providers that this is the work they do, and they haven’t been paid in four months,” said Linnenburger, who represents a client charged with marijuana manufacturing conspiracy. “That becomes very problematic At the end of the day, we’re small businesspeople.

“We rely on other providers — experts, investigators and, in complex cases, discovery coordinators. Those people are essentially beginning to tell us, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ I can’t say I blame them.”