There are “overwhelming facts, evidence, and testimony” proving that the University of California allowed a hostile environment on its campuses and failed to protect their employees from anti-Semitic tropes and attacks, senior Justice Department officials told The Daily Wire.
The Justice Department launched an investigation into the University of California system on Wednesday, following extensive reports about pervasive anti-Semitism on its campuses following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which spurred protests and conflict on campuses around the country.
“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the investigation.
Leo Terrell, the senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, who is leading the Justice Department Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, told The Daily Wire that he expects the investigation to compile extensive evidence and testimony that will present “a viable winning case.”
Terrell said that the investigation is part of executing President Donald Trump’s executive order to rid America’s campuses of anti-Semitism.
“Trump and Bondi have made this a number one priority, and I’m proud and privileged to lead the task force to make sure that we root out anti-Semitism in every aspect of student life,” Terrell told The Daily Wire.
The investigation relies upon both submitted complaints and reporting, including The Daily Wire’s report about the student government at the University of California, Los Angeles, allegedly discriminating against Jews and Zionists in hiring practices.
“This is going to lead to a lot more digging into the university to go behind the scenes, lift up the curtain to figure out what else is going on, including potentially emails among university administration where they’re flagging this issue and nothing’s going out,” Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle, who is helping lead the investigation, told The Daily Wire.
“We don’t know what we’re going to find, but we’re going to look at everything.”
The investigation seeks to determine if the University of California system violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Under Title VII, the Justice Department has the authority to investigate employers where it has reason to believe that a “pattern to practice” of employment discrimination exists.
“This is alleging that the staff, employees, faculty, professors, and people on the payroll are being subjected to a pattern and practice of harassment, unsafe work conditions, hostile work environment, because the university has refused to take action against blatant anti-Semitic behavior,” Mizelle said.
The University of California system may be guilty of discriminating against Jews and Israelis based on their race, religion, and national origin, according to Mizelle.
“This is one of these instances where you have actually three separate bases of discrimination that it appears that the university has not taken appropriate action to combat,” Mizelle said.
Mizelle and Terrell said they hope to complete the investigation within 30 days, depending on how complicated their findings are. The duo plans to lead a team that will conduct deep dives into troves of emails and documents as well as interview witnesses, including students.
Once the investigation is complete, Bondi will determine if there is enough evidence to pursue a lawsuit to seek injunctive relief, which would include a court requiring the university to cease discriminatory behavior.
While the University of California system has 10 campuses that will be investigated, the Justice Department plans to pay close attention to UCLA and University of California, Berkeley, where many of the troubling reports about anti-Semitism have stemmed.
In December, The Daily Wire reported on a complaint filed regarding the Cultural Affairs Commissioner of UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council, directing her staff to discriminate against Zionists when reviewing job applications.
A screenshot of a group message from the commissioner shows her alerting her staff when Zionists applied for a job, directing them to “please do your research when you look at applicants.”
A document from the group cited in the complaint categorizes Zionism alongside hateful ideologies, stating that any staff member can be removed from their position if they’re found to exhibit “antiBlackness, colorism, racism, white supremacy, zionism, xenophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, ableism, or any/all other hateful bigoted ideologies.”
Terrell, who graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1990, said the DOJ has received numerous reports and complaints accusing the University of California system of creating a “severe and pervasive form of hostility and work environment.”
“That’s what we’re going to follow up on,” he said. “That’s the whole purpose of the notice to investigate.”
“I think there was such a delay in the response of the officials at UCLA as an example of the failure to take corrective action or immediate action or even to protect the students and the workforce at these universities and institutions,” Terrell added.
UCLA has been one of the most prominent schools thrown in the spotlight since the anti-Israel campus protests erupted, with a federal judge in August issuing an injunction to stop the school from permitting and aiding anti-Semitic agitators who blocked Jews from the campus.
Regarding UC Berkeley, Mizelle and Terrell pointed to numerous reports of anti-Semitism, including Jewish students being forced to evacuate an event featuring Israeli Defense Forces special forces soldier Ran Bar-Yoshafat after a mob of protesters stormed the building.
Trump established the task force in January. The order marshals all federal resources to combat anti-Semitism and demands the deportation of foreign anti-Semitic demonstrators who violate American laws, including students on visas.
“There’s a new sheriff in town with Attorney General Pam Bondi and there’s a new sheriff in town with President Donald J. Trump,” Mizelle said. “They have made it very clear from the moment that Donald Trump was sworn in from the moment that she was sworn in as attorney general, they will not tolerate this.”
He added that the administration is dedicating “extensive resources” towards the effort to combat anti-Semitism.
“It is because of their leadership in this area that we do believe we’re going to be successful in rooting out anti-Semitic behavior from our colleges,” Mizelle said.
On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that all federal funding for schools and universities would be stopped if they allowed “illegal protest.”
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” Trump said. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”
Terrell and Mizelle said any person who feels as if they were discriminated against should file a complaint with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
