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   Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:43 JST Nonilex

   Orders to Investigate #Columbia #Protesters Raised Alarms in #DOJ

   Behind the scenes, a top department official pressed employees to gather a #list of #activists & investigate them, people familiar with the matter said.

   #law #ethics #Constitution #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #RightToProtest #dissent #autocracy #authoritarianism #tyranny #dictatorship #Gestapo #ThoughtPolice #Trump
   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/columbia-protests-justice-department.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=1E34655C-2935-4980-93C4-2712A89B06D8

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:37 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     The #CivilRights Prosecutors refused to compile such a list that could be given to #ICE agents….

     #EmilBove then shifted his focus to obtaining a search #warrant for the group’s #Instagram account…. He ordered prosecutors to apply for a search warrant for the nonpublic data associated with the account, these people said.

     The premise of the application was also contentious within the department.

     #law #DOJ #ethics #Constitution #FirstAmendment #dissent #autocracy #tyranny #Trump

     Blaise Pabón - controlpl4n3 repeated this.
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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:37 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     #EmilBove insisted that the #Instagram account in question had been used to make a threat, while line prosecutors said the statement at issue did not meet the #legal definition of a #threat. In late March, the #SocialMedia company suspended the group’s account for failing to meet its “community standards.”

     #law #ethics #Constitution #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #RightToProtest #immigration #dissent #autocracy #authoritarianism #tyranny #dictatorship #Gestapo #ThoughtPolice #Trump

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:38 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     One of the #DOJ attys assigned to the case was Samantha Trepel, an experienced #CivilRights prosecutor who secured a federal conviction against #DerekChauvin, the police officer who killed #GeorgeFloyd….

     The prosecutors were told…that #EmilBove was seeking a #list so it could be shared w/ #immigration agents…. Prosecutors came to fear that their #criminal investigation was a pretext to facilitate an #intimidation & #deportation campaign by the #Trump admin against #student #protesters….

     #law

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:39 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     #EmilBove, a snr #Trump #DOJ ofcl, ordered an immediate investigation, primarily of one particular #student group, #Columbia University Apartheid Divest…
     Bove told prosecutors in the #CivilRights division to obtain a membership #list…. Investigators…pushed back on those instructions because they were skeptical such a list existed, given the amorphous nature of online forums, & even if it did, scrutinizing people for membership seemed like a violation of their #FirstAmendment rights.
     #law #ethics

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:40 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     The investigation began shortly after masked protesters barged into Milbank Hall, a building at the #Columbia-affiliated #Barnard College, on Feb 26 to demonstrate against the expulsion of #students who had been accused of disrupting a “History of Modern Israel” class. Video shows students pushing past a security guard & occupying a hallway. School ofcls said at the time that the guard was assaulted & taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

     #law #ethics #FirstAmendment #DOJ #tyranny #Trump

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:41 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Those types of demands from political appointees at the #DOJ are part of the reason there has been an exodus of lawyers from the #CivilRights division in recent weeks, acc/to current & fmr ofcls.

     The federal investigation into #student #protesters at #Columbia appears to have stalled for now, but it represents one of the most contentious episodes yet inside #Justice during #Trump’s 2nd term. The dispute has left lingering ill will within the dept, as well as the #courts & the #FBI….

     #law

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:41 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     …The #Trump admin has vowed to take on campus #protests against #Israel’s military campaign in the #Gaza Strip, saying they reflect #antisemitism that must be punished. Those efforts are aimed at both #college administrators, who Trump ofcls say should have done more to rein in campus protests, & #student #activists themselves, some of whom #immigration ofcls have detained. Activists, in turn, accuse the authorities of conflating criticism of Israeli & US policy w/antisemitism.

     #law #FreeSpeech

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:42 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     A top #Trump appointee in the #DOJ ordered an aggressive investigation…of #student #protesters at #ColumbiaUniversity, raising anger & alarm among career prosecutors & investigators who saw it as politically motivated & lacking legal merit….

     The demand for the inquiry into #students who protested #Israel’s conduct…in #Gaza also prompted pushback from a federal magistrate judge, who believed some of the steps being sought by… #EmilBove were unjustified & might violate the #FirstAmendment.

     #law

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 09:08:42 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     The breadth of the investigation, conducted by the #DOJ’s #CivilRights division, has not been previously reported. The ensuing clash highlights the tensions roiling the dept as admin ofcls seek to enact #Trump’s agenda. That bid includes redirecting the…division away from its traditional approach of protecting the rights of minority groups to a new mission of fulfilling a campaign promise to crack down on #student #protesters amid accusations of rampant #antisemitism on #college campuses.

     #law