A Michigan defense attorney is challenging FBI allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects planned to carry out a terrorist attack over Halloween weekend.
FBI and Michigan authorities have offered few details about the case; However, when announcing the arrests on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said more information would be released. Spokespeople for the state and national FBI and the federal prosecutor in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.
The investigation involved a discussion in an online chat room involving at least some of the suspects who were detained, according to two people briefed on the investigation who could not discuss details publicly. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The group allegedly talked about carrying out an attack around Halloween, referring to “pumpkin day,” according to one of the people. The other person briefed on the investigation confirmed that there had been a reference to the “pumpkin.”
However, attorney Amir Makled, who represents a suburban Dearborn man who was being detained Saturday, told The Detroit News that he does not believe his client or the four other people who were questioned by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force should be charged. The all-male group of U.S. citizens is between 16 and 20 years old, Makled said.
“This is not a terrorist cell,” Makled told The News. “There has never been any planned mass casualty event or terrorist plot of any kind that I know of. They may have been on some websites or online chat groups that they shouldn’t have been on, but nothing that is illegal.”
Makled did not immediately respond to AP messages seeking comment Saturday.
Authorities said Friday they do not believe there was any threat to the public after the arrests were made. Patel said Friday in a post on
Patel credited FBI surveillance, along with help from local authorities, for foiling the plot.
Makled said he believes those comments may have been premature.
“Being curious about global events is not illegal,” he said. “Being in those chat rooms is not illegal. If there is a threat, if they are radicalized, or if an (FBI) agent is trying to antagonize them or get them to agree to do something that is inappropriate or illegal, then a threshold is crossed. None of that happened in this situation.”
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI has thwarted several suspected attacks through sting operations in which agents posed as terrorist supporters and provided advice and equipment.
Investigators say they believe the Halloween plot was inspired by the extremism of the Islamic State group. It was not immediately clear whether the group had the means to carry out an attack, but the reference to Halloween led the FBI to make arrests on Friday, one of the people familiar with the investigation told the AP.
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Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.