Maricopa County prosecutors charged a 27-year-old Arizona man with a felony terrorist threat after alleging he planned a bomb-and-gun assault on a house of worship using a manual tied to the Oklahoma City bombing, his defense calls the tip pure hearsay from a disgruntled acquaintance.
Matthew Bjornholt appeared in court Friday on the charge tied to what prosecutors described as a detailed plan for a mass casualty attack. They said he outlined using explosives followed by an accomplice shooting survivors at a religious site.
Fox News reported that investigators seized three guns and ammunition from his home. The specific house of worship and any named accomplice remain unclear.
Prosecutor Stephen Garcia sought a $500,000 cash bond and called Bjornholt an imminent danger to the community. The judge set bond at $100,000 after finding enough probable cause to move the case forward, while noting the state's preliminary evidence relied heavily on hearsay.
Bjornholt is due back for a status conference on Oct. 22 and a preliminary hearing on Oct. 26.
Prosecutors cite Anarchist Cookbook as his "Bible"
Garcia told the court Bjornholt referred to “The Anarchist Cookbook” as his "Bible." That manual contains bomb-making instructions and has long been linked to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
Prosecutors alleged the blueprint called for detonating bombs at the target, then having an accomplice “picking off people” with firearms. No injuries, damages, or completed attack were reported.
The FBI Phoenix field office executed a search warrant at Bjornholt’s home on Sept. 29. Authorities took electronic devices after he provided passwords, according to court discussion.
Similar concerns about planned mass harm have surfaced elsewhere, including a teen arrested in an FBI sting over an alleged ISIS-inspired shooting plot at a crowded mall.
Defense says FBI found nothing and cut him loose
Defense attorney Chad Schell pushed back hard. He argued the tip came from a former acquaintance Bjornholt briefly let stay at his house late last month, then kicked out two days before the Sept. 29 search.
Schell told the court the claims amounted to unverified statements from someone with a grudge.
"There is no evidence he's a danger to the community. What is the evidence that he's a danger to the community? Some hearsay statements from some dude, that my client kicked out of his house two days before September 29,"
He added that federal investigators had already looked into the matter weeks earlier.
"Again, the FBI served a search warrant, got all of his electronic devices. He gave them access, gave him his passwords to those devices. They went through all of those electronic devices. They didn't see anything about terrorism. And FBI cut him loose,"
Schell said county authorities took over the case a couple of weeks later. He maintained the three guns were lawfully possessed after Bjornholt’s civil rights were restored, and that the ammunition amounted to no more than standard magazine loads.
Foiled plots involving explosives have drawn attention in other cases, such as a former Navy SEAL convicted after a store clerk stopped an explosives scheme aimed at police.
Prior case dropped, rights restored, guns kept
Schell noted a previous first-degree murder charge against Bjornholt was dropped for lack of evidence. A drug charge followed; he completed that sentence and had his civil rights restored, the defense said.
Prosecutors referenced criminal history in arguing for the high bond. The judge still set the lower figure and allowed the felony terrorist threat count to proceed in Maricopa County.
Planned attacks on public sites remain a steady concern for law enforcement, as seen when Texas DPS and FBI arrested a Converse man over an alleged plot against the state Capitol.
Counterterrorism expert Ryan Mauro has warned that so-called lone wolves may carry wider extremist ties. The Fox News account opened by referencing a separate Minnesota case in which an 18-year-old faced accusations of an ISIS-inspired attack plan at the Mall of America after two years of FBI monitoring.
Houses of worship left unnamed as case moves ahead
No specific Jewish or Muslim house of worship was identified as the target. No accomplice was named in the available court details. Fox News Digital reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the Sheriff's Office, and the FBI for further comment.
Mass casualty violence against gathered civilians continues to surface in different forms overseas as well, including a Berlin Pride attack that left one dead and dozens hurt.
Bjornholt remains charged at the county level. The FBI search yielded guns and ammunition but, per the defense account presented in court, no bomb-making materials or terrorism evidence that supported federal charges.
The gap between a tip, a search, a dropped federal interest, and a county felony filing now sits before the court on the October calendar. Taxpayers and worshippers alike have a right to expect clear evidence and steady enforcement when threats of this kind reach a courtroom.
