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New reporting in The New York Times detailed a major "clash" at the Department of Justice over a Columbia University investigation that led to a rebellion on the part of prosecutors in the civil rights division.
Top DOJ official Emil Bove III launched the investigation into students who "barged into" a building at the Columbia-affiliated Barnard College in February, according to The Times. The students were protesting the expulsion of students accused of disrupting a “History of Modern Israel” class, during which a security guard was allegedly attacked.
The primary target was "one particular student group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest," the report said. "Prodded by Mr. Bove, prosecutors in the civil rights division were told to obtain a membership list of the group. Investigators, however, pushed back on those instructions because they were skeptical such a list even existed, given the amorphous nature of online forums, and even if it did, scrutinizing people for their membership seemed like a possible violation of their First Amendment rights," according to The Times's sources.
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Bove wanted to share the list with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but "Inside the civil rights division, prosecutors came to fear that their criminal investigation was a pretext to facilitate an intimidation and deportation campaign by the Trump administration against student protesters."
The prosecutors ultimately refused to compile the requested list.
Bove then changed tactics, and ordered prosecutors to apply for a search warrant "for the nonpublic data" associated with the group's Instagram account, accusing the students of using the platform to "make a threat," wrote reporter Devlin Barrett.
But, again, prosecutors saw it differently, claiming "the statement at issue did not meet the legal definition of a threat." Instagram shuttered the account anyway for "community standards" violations.
A legal expert told The Times that Bove, “did something that prosecutors are absolutely forbidden to do — use the law enforcement powers of the government to try to intimidate these individuals or destroy their rights. This is so far past the line of prosecutorial professionalism and the commitment to principles of justice.”
The report concluded, "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 the Justice Department during Mr. Trump’s second term. The dispute has left lingering ill will within the department, as well as the courts and the F.B.I.," sources told The Times.
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