Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, announced that the department is planning to file federal hate crime indictments.
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 News, Terrell said, as reported by Newsmax, “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.”
He explained 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 did nothing and failed at their job. We are about to do more in a month than Biden and Harris did in four years.”
The indictments are expected to be filed in the coming weeks. “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 said.
Terrell further explained, “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.”
The task force’s leading priority is to “root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” a February 3 announcement from the DOJ said.
“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” Terrell said at the time. “The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”
