Trump DOJ to file hate crime indictments against campus activists who 'are supporting Hamas'

Head of the US Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism Leo Terrell announced that federal hate crime indictments will soon be filed against campus activists who are "supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews."

Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant U.S. Attorney General for civil rights, told Israel's Channel 12 News on Wednesday, "You see all these disorderly demonstrations, supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews? We are going to put these people in jail — not for 24 hours, but for years.”

The civil rights attorney noted that under the Biden administration, "local prosecutors did not take action to file hate crime charges. In major cities like New York and Los Angeles, Jews have been harassed and denied access to universities. They [prosecutors] did nothing and failed at their job. We are about to do more in a month than Biden and Harris did in four years."

He announced that the first indictments are expected to be filed in the next week and a half. "A lot is going to happen in the next four to five weeks. My message to Jews in the United States and around the world — help is on the way."

He continued, "When you see universities start losing millions of dollars in federal funding, you're going to see a change in their behavior. When you see court orders protecting Jewish students, visas of antisemitic students being revoked — you will see a major change."

On February 3, the Justice Department announced that it had formed the task force following President Donald Trump's executive order on "Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism.” The order called on every federal agency to submit a report within 60 days regarding efforts to combat antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attacks.

Terrell also announced a tour of 10 universities accused of "harming Jewish students and allowing harassment." He added, that the Trump administration's message to the colleges is "protect Jewish students like you protect all other students, or we'll sue you and take away your funding," he explained. "We're going to make sure they don't get a penny, we're going to financially attack any university that doesn't protect students, and if it's public, we're going to take away the funding."

Terrell said that since the Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, "There has been a tremendous increase in antisemitism worldwide. Our fight is not just here in the United States; we are trying to set an example for the entire world.”