Arizona Suspect’s Religious Site Attack Plot Linked to OKC Cookbook

In Arizona, prosecutors say a man accused of planning a mass-casualty attack at a Jewish or Muslim house of worship possessed a notorious bomb-making guide associated with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Matthew Bjornholt, 27, has been charged with felony-level making of a terrorist threat over the alleged plan to target a religious site.

Maricopa County prosecutors allege that Bjornholt devised a violent attack plan involving firearms, explosives and an accomplice who would shoot people left alive after the initial assault.

At a Friday court hearing, prosecutor Stephen Garcia requested a $500,000 cash bond and described Bjornholt as an immediate threat to the public, FOX 10 reported.

Garcia said Bjornholt had mapped out a detailed attack on a religious institution. The prosecutor also alleged that investigators found a copy of “The Anarchist Cookbook,” which contains bomb-making instructions and has long been associated with McVeigh.

According to Garcia, Bjornholt described the book as his “Bible.”

Prosecutors allege the plan called for bombs to be detonated first, followed by an accomplice using a gun to begin “picking off people.”

Authorities later recovered three firearms and ammunition from Bjornholt’s residence.

Defense attorney Chad Schell disputed the allegations, arguing that the case rests entirely on uncorroborated claims made by a former acquaintance who was angry with Bjornholt, FOX 10 reported.

Schell told the court that the informant was a “homeless alcoholic” whom Bjornholt had briefly allowed to stay at his home before asking him to leave late the previous month.

Schell said federal officials had reviewed the allegations weeks earlier. He told the court that the FBI searched Bjornholt’s home on Sept. 29 and that his client voluntarily handed over his electronic devices and the passwords needed to access them.

The defense attorney said federal investigators found no evidence of terrorism or bomb-making supplies and declined to file federal charges before county authorities assumed control of the case several weeks later.

“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,” Schell told the judge.

“Again, the FBI served a search warrant, got all of his electronic devices. He gave them access, gave them 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,” he added.

Schell further maintained that Bjornholt legally owned the three guns. He said Bjornholt’s civil rights had been restored after he completed a sentence on a drug offense connected to a dismissed first-degree murder case. The murder charge, Schell said, was dropped because prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence.

The ammunition recovered from the home was merely enough to fill standard firearm magazines, Schell argued.

News Outlet has reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and FBI Phoenix for comment.

Despite prosecutors citing Bjornholt’s criminal history in arguing for a larger bond, the judge said the state’s preliminary evidence relied heavily on hearsay and set Bjornholt’s bond at $100,000, according to FOX 10.

The judge nevertheless found enough probable cause to move the case forward.

It remains unclear whether specific houses of worship were targeted in the alleged plot or whether there was a specific accomplice.

Bjornholt is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 22 for a status conference and then later for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 26.