Four Face Charges in U-M Intimidation Case Tied to Campus Protests

Federal prosecutors in Detroit charged four more people Friday in a campaign of intimidation aimed at University of Michigan officials over the school's financial ties to Israel. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the four joined an effort to force the university to sever those ties.

The indictment follows one filed in June that charged eight people. Investigators pointed to several acts, including fake bloody corpses placed in the yard of a university board member and anti-Israel graffiti spray-painted in 2024 at the home of Santa Ono, who was school president at the time. Threats and vandalism were also reported at the Jewish Federation of Detroit. Two of the four newly charged defendants were arrested and were set to appear in court Friday. The other two were not in custody.

U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. framed the case in stark terms. "From Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas, those who terrorize Jews have been the bad guys. As Americans, our job is to fight the bad guys," he said. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, pro-Palestinian protesters have called on the university's endowment to stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. The university says less than 0.1% of its total endowment sits with funds that might include companies in Israel.

Lawyers for pro-Palestinian activists in suits against the university said the June indictment appeared to "be a new low in the criminalization of student opposition to the human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza." John Philo of the Sugar Law Center in Detroit said, "The federal government is seeking to bring federal charges for acts traditionally reserved to local prosecutors." A pro-Palestinian camp on campus was cleared in 2024, and the university said it was a threat to public safety.