Head of DOJ Antisemitism Task Force: We’ll Put Hamas Supporters in Jail ‘for Years’

WASHINGTON (JNS) – The U.S. Department of Justice-led Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will soon file federal hate crime indictments against campus activists “supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews,” Leo Terrell, who leads the efforts, 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,” Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, said in remarks translated to Hebrew.

Under the Biden administration, “local prosecutors did not take action to file hate crime charges,” the civil rights lawyer said. “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.”

The first indictments are expected to be filed in the next week and a half, he said, adding that other “aggressive” moves would also be announced.

“A lot is going to happen in the next four to five weeks,” Terrel said. “My message to Jews in the United States and around the world—help is on the way.”

When protesters face jail time, “it will stop,” said the official. “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,” he added, announcing a tour of 10 universities accused of “harming Jewish students and allowing harassment.

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.”

Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, “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,” he concluded.

On Feb. 3, the Justice Department announced that following President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism,” it had formed the task force to counter Jew-hatred.

Trump’s order called on every federal agency to submit a report to the president within 60 days about efforts to combat Jew-hatred following the Oct. 7 attacks.

“The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found,” Terrell explained at the time. “The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”

Terrell, who is black and Christian, is a civil rights attorney and former talk radio host who has repeatedly spoken out in the media about the failure of the federal government to properly defend Jews after Oct. 7.