(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend.
Authorities with the FBI and in Michigan have offered few details about the case, however as he announced the arrests on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said more information would be released. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.
The group allegedly discussed 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 “pumpkin” reference.
However, lawyer Amir Makled, who represents a man from the suburb of Dearborn who was being detained Saturday, told The Detroit News that he doesn’t believe his client or the four other people who were questioned by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force should be charged. The all-male group of U.S. citizens ranges in age from 16-20, Makled said.
“This is not a terrorist cell,” Makled told The News. “There was never any planned mass-casualty event or terrorism plot of any kind that I’m aware of. They might have been on some websites or online chat groups that they shouldn’t have been, but nothing that is illegal.”
Makled’s comments come as anonymous sources are reportedly saying that the FBI’s operation entailed an undercover agent communicating with the young men online.
The FBI has a long history of using undercover agents to provoke or bait young men into criminal acts—one of the most prominent examples occurring in Michigan with the 2020 purported militia plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In that case, there were at least 12 informants and several undercover agents, some of whom organized militia training exercises, drove some the defendants to various locations, and supplied them with copious amounts of alcohol and cannabis.
Of the 12 men arrested in the Whitmer case, four took plea deals, five were eventually acquitted, and five were found guilty—two of them in federal court and three in state court. Two separate courts have upheld the convictions, despite the fact that judges admitted the FBI had provoked the accused.
More recently in that state, the feds arrested a 19-year-old former Michigan Army National Guardsman for allegedly attempting to carry out a mass shooting at a U.S. military base in Warren, Michigan. The DOJ’s charging papers against Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said show that at least two undercover FBI agents and an informant were used against him. Records also show that Said suspected the undercover agents of entrapment in December, before he eventually changed his mind and decided to proceed with the purported plan.
While I'm less sympathetic to entrapment claims when the target is enlisted in the military, this case is pretty egregious.
On Dec. 13, the 2 undercover agents convinced Said to record an ISIS propaganda video. Said actually suspected them of being feds, so he put AirTags in… https://t.co/tqrEFtPdQw pic.twitter.com/IBhQP1v5xZ— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 16, 2025
Said’s case is still pending.
Authorities said Friday that they don’t believe there is any threat to the public after the arrests were made. Patel said Friday in a post on X that “the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”
Patel credited the vigilance of the FBI, along with help from local authorities, with thwarting the plot.
Makled said he believes those comments may have been premature.
“Having a curiosity about global events is not illegal,” he said. “Being in those chat rooms is not illegal. If there is a threat, if they became radicalized, or if an (FBI) agent is trying to antagonize or get them to agree to do something that is inappropriate or illegal, then you cross a threshold. None of that happened in this situation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
