A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI Director Kash Patel's allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend.
Announcing their arrests on Friday, Patel said more information would be coming soon, however the FBI and Michigan authorities have offered few details about the case. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.
The investigation involved discussion in an online chat room involving at least some of the suspects who were taken into custody, according to two people briefed on the investigation who could not publicly discuss details. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. 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 still detained on Saturday, said federal authorities haven't given him many details about the investigation but after reviewing the matter, he concluded that no terror event was planned. He said he doesn’t expect any charges will be filed.
“I don’t know where this hysteria and this fearmongering came from,” Makled said.
He described the all-male group of U.S. citizens as gamers, and said they range in age from 16 to 20.
“If these young men were on forums that they should not have been on or things of that nature, then we’ll have to wait and see,” Makled said. “But I don’t believe that there’s anything illegal about any of the activity they were doing.”
Authorities said Friday after the arrests were made that there was no further threat to public safety. Patel had announced 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.”
Investigators allege the plan was inspired by Islamic State group extremism. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had the means to carry out an attack, but the reference to Halloween prompted the FBI to make arrests Friday, one of the people familiar with the investigation told the AP.
Patel credited the vigilance of the FBI, along with help from local authorities, with thwarting the plot.
Since the 9/11 terror attacks, the FBI has foiled several alleged attacks through sting operations in which agents posed as terror supporters, supplying advice and equipment.
Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
FBI agents gather outside a home in a Dearborn, Mich., neighborhood on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
FBI agents gather outside a home in a Dearborn, Mich., neighborhood on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s rape retrial ended in a mistrial Friday after the jury deadlocked.
While the former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on two U.S. coasts and remains behind bars, the mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials.
A majority-male Manhattan jury had been weighing whether Weinstein raped Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, in 2013. Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the encounter was consensual. It happened during a fraught relationship between the then-married Weinstein and the decades-younger Mann.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors said they were at loggerheads Friday in Harvey Weinstein 's rape retrial, but a judge told the panel to keep trying for a verdict in the closely watched #MeToo-era case that another jury failed to decide last year.
The signs of stalemate emerged a few hours into the third day of deliberations. Jurors sent a note saying they “have concluded that they cannot reach” a unanimous verdict. Judge Curtis Farber instructed the group to continue deliberating. That's generally what New York judges do at least the first time a jury says it's stuck.
Jurors then returned to their closed-door discussions. They're tasked with deciding whether Weinstein — the former movie mogul who became a symbol of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct — raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013.
An appeals court overturned his 2020 New York conviction on charges that involved Mann and another accuser. At a retrial last year, jury deliberations broke down amid infighting on Mann’s portion of the case, leading to this current retrial. Weinstein is charged with one count of rape in the third degree.
Mann, 40, has testified that she willingly had some sexual interludes with the then-married producer, but that he subjected her to unwanted sex that day after she repeatedly said no.
Weinstein's lawyers maintain that the encounter was consensual. They have emphasized that Mann subsequently continued seeing Weinstein and expressing warmth toward him. Mann has said she was mired in complicated feelings about him, herself and what had happened.
Her viewpoint changed in 2017, when a series of allegations against the Oscar-winning Weinstein propelled #MeToo. Some of those accusations generated criminal convictions against Weinstein in New York and California.
Weinstein, 74, has said he “acted wrongly” but never assaulted anyone.
The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, five days of it from Mann. Weinstein did not testify.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted. Mann, however, has agreed to be named.
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court on Friday, May 15, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court on Friday, May 15, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court on Friday, May 15, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears with attorney Marc Agnifilo in Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears with attorneys Marc Agnifilo, left, and Jacob Kaplan in Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
