A Democratic state prosecutor is drawing criticism for dropping charges against anti-Israel encampment protesters because the case caused “contention.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Monday she had dropped charges against seven people accused of trespassing and obstructing police at the University of Michigan in 2024, despite saying the case was winnable. Legal organizations focused on combating antisemitism told the Daily Caller News Foundation that her choice sets a bad precedent for college campuses.
“This is an appalling dereliction of duty that does nothing but encourage terrorist-supporting anarchists to ignore the rule of law and engage in more disruptive, discriminatory conduct targeting Jews,” the pro-Israel Lawfare Project said. “The failure to prosecute a straightforward felony case sends the message that in Michigan, actions do not have consequences.”
Nessel initially accused the seven protesters of using “physical force” to keep police officers from clearing out an unlawful tent encampment in May 2024. Police officers and a local fire marshal later testified in court about the protesters’ actions and how the encampment allegedly posed a fire hazard, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Marc Greendorfer, president of Zachor Legal Institute, told the DCNF that “if Michigan’s Attorney General is too timid to enforce laws against” such behavior, his organization hopes “Attorney General [Pam] Bondi will take action.”
Nessel said in her Monday statement that “based on the evidence, a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the crimes alleged,” but that “the case has become a lightning rod of contention.”
“I no longer believe these cases to be a prudent use of my department’s resources, and, as such, I have decided to dismiss the cases,” she said.
Nessel first pointed to an April motion from defense attorneys for the defendants calling for her to be disqualified over accusations of personal bias against the defendants.
Nessel’s office had mentioned in a document unrelated to the case that critics accused her “without justification” of prosecuting university protesters “due to bias against Muslims and/or people of Arab descent,” Michigan Public Radio reported. Defense attorneys took issue with the statement, as well as the fact that Nessel, who is Jewish, publicly said that the anti-Israel phrase “from the river to the sea” is “antisemitic.” A judge was set to rule on the motion to recuse her from the case on Monday, the day Nessel dropped charges.
The attorney general also blamed the uproar surrounding the case on the Jewish Federation of Ann Arbor, a nonprofit that wrote a letter to the court in her defense. The group declined the DCNF’s request for comment.
“The impropriety of this action has led us to the difficult decision to drop these charges,” Nessel said about the letter.
Nessel’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“Law enforcement is hobbled due to the threats emanating from those who break the law,” Greendorfer, an attorney and legal scholar, told the DCNF.
“What AG Nessel’s decision represents is a classic case of a heckler’s veto in the context of law enforcement,” Greendorfer said. “We’ve seen this many times before, from the days of [Black Lives Matter and] Antifa rioting in 2020 to the current situations on campus after the Islamic terror attacks of October 7, 2023.”
The University of Michigan has seen numerous reports of antisemitic incidents since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023, such as a group of men assaulting a Jewish student. In a December incident, a “diversity” official lost her job for declaring that the campus was “controlled by wealthy Jews” and that Jewish students are “wealthy and privileged.” The school has promised that “antisemitism has no place” at the institution and also suspended an anti-Israel group in February over its involvement in the encampment and a protest outside of a regent’s home.
Nessel’s “decision also makes the University of Michigan — already a hotbed of antisemitism — that much more dangerous for Jewish students and faculty,” the Lawfare Project told the DCNF.
The university did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Lawyers for the seven defendants also don’t buy Nessel’s reasoning for dropping charges — but are happy to see their clients let off the hook.
“Nessel’s claim that a ‘reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty’ is not only unsubstantiated — it’s a face-saving measure to deflect from the blatant overreach her office engaged in by prosecuting students for peaceful protest in the first place,” attorney Amir Makled told the DCNF. “The truth is that these charges were politically motivated from the outset.”
“Now, faced with mounting public scrutiny, national media attention, and a looming court decision on her disqualification, the AG is retreating,” Makled said. “But instead of acknowledging the constitutional concerns at the heart of this prosecution, she is doubling down — implying guilt while dismissing charges. That’s not justice. That’s damage control.”
Nessel’s office said in September that the encampment mob had occupied the campus without permission, threw “chairs, tables, and other items” in front of officers trying to disperse it and “physically obstructed the police and pushed against their bodies.” Lawyers for those who saw their charges dropped maintain that the gathering remained “peaceful.”
“If these [cases were] to be presented to a reasonable jury of their peers, we’re confident every one of these individuals would be acquitted of all charges because these are baseless charges that should have never been brought against individuals exercising their right to free speech by advocating for Palestinian rights and the end of the genocide being committed against them by Israel,” attorney Jamil Khuja told the DCNF.
“Local prosecutors declined to pursue [the charges], recognizing that this was not a matter of criminal justice but a matter of protected First Amendment expression,” Makled said.
“We maintain that the evidence — drone and bodycam video in particular — would exonerate the protesters and were looking forward to beating the AG’s charges publicly at trial,” attorney Stacie McNulty told the DCNF.
“It is important to note that the AG withdrew all charges before the Court had the opportunity to decide if sufficient evidence of probable cause existed for the felony charges by hearing arguments from the parties,” McNulty said.
The other four attorneys representing the protesters declined to comment or did not respond to the DCNF.
The Trump administration is waging a multi-front effort against alleged antisemitism on college campuses, pulling federal funds from institutions and deporting “terrorist sympathizers” from other countries. The University of Michigan is one of dozens of schools the administration warned to adhere to civil rights laws in March.
Greendorfer said Nessel’s leadership shows that the Department of Justice (DOJ) should “step in when states or localities allow Hamas-aligned campus actors to deprive others of their constitutional rights.”
“This is a situation that requires federal intervention to ensure that rogue and/or spineless state attorneys general are not allowed to empower discrimination and violence out of convenience or political favoritism,” the group said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement provided by Stacie McNulty.
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