{"id":318345,"date":"2026-07-20T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=318345"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:13:26","slug":"mahmoud-khalil-sues-trump-officials-for-conspiracy-against-pro-palestinian-organizers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/07\/mahmoud-khalil-sues-trump-officials-for-conspiracy-against-pro-palestinian-organizers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahmoud Khalil Sues Trump Officials for Conspiracy against Pro-Palestinian Organizers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Columbia University students, professors, and supporters gather to rally in support of Mahmoud Khalil, Leqaa Kordia, and the numerous other community members who have been unlawfully detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City on 9 Mar 2026. (Photo by Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis case will expose the scheme that sought to criminalize the Palestine solidarity movement in the US.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

14 Jul 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0A lawsuit filed by former Columbia University<\/a> student organizer Mahmoud Khalil<\/a> wasn\u2019t his first legal challenge stemming from his arrest last year for his Palestinian rights<\/a> advocacy, but he emphasized that his decision to take members of the Trump administration<\/a> and private pro-Israel organizations to court was \u201cabout far more than what was done to\u201d him when he was detained for 104 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case will expose the scheme that sought to criminalize the Palestine<\/a> solidarity<\/a> movement in the US,\u201d said<\/a> Khalil in a statement. \u201cIt is about a coordinated, ongoing plot to punish, silence, and intimidate everyone who dares to dissent and speak out for Palestinian liberation. We will hold them accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman, Khalil sued the Heritage Foundation<\/a>, Canary Mission, Betar, Trump administration adviser Stephen Miller<\/a>, Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a>, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, his predecessor Kristi Noem, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and John Armstrong, an official at the State Department\u2019s Bureau of Consular Affairs.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit<\/a> was filed under the Ku Klux Klan<\/a> Act of 1871, which was passed to stop efforts by vigilante groups like the KKK to coordinate with the government to strip individuals of their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cMahmoud is now using this statute to affirmatively challenge the illegal, anti-Palestinian, and anti-democratic public-private conspiracy to harass, intimidate, and punish Palestinians<\/a> and their allies,\u201d said<\/a> CCR.<\/p>\n

\n

Khalil: \u201cI will not stop fighting until everyone who willingly contributed to my missing the birth of my son and to taking 104 days of my life from me answers for what they\u2019ve done.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/x6iTgoxsXa<\/a><\/em>
\n\u2014 Erik Uebelacker (@Uebey) July 14, 2026<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

As the Trump administration continues its efforts to deport Khalil, the lawsuit traces the alleged public-private conspiracy against pro-Palestinian organizers to October 2023, when Miller \u201cvowed to punish Palestinians and their supporters through arrest and deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year later, the Heritage Foundation published Project Esther, which conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism<\/a>, claimed all pro-Palestinian organizers were Hamas<\/a> supporters, and pledged to execute a plan to deport foreign protesters \u201cwhen a willing administration occupies the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Heritage Foundation said a \u201cpublic-private partnership\u201d would be required to carry out Project Esther. The lawsuit alleges that Canary Mission, an anonymously run Israeli surveillance and doxing organization, and Betar, a self-described vigilante group with a history of surveilling and harassing supporters of Palestinian rights, provided that partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween March and May 2025, Miller, Rubio, Noem, and Armstrong used ICE to arrest or to try to arrest at least nine students or scholars pre-selected by the private groups,\u201d said CCR. \u201cThe federal defendants continue to seek Mr. Khalil\u2019s deportation and pursue the conspiracy through sham, corrupted immigration<\/a> proceedings under their control. Working together, the government and private co-conspirators sought to deny Palestinians and their supporters their constitutional rights: to equal protection, to freedom of speech and travel, to freedom from punitive detention, and, ultimately, to exist in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

As The New York Times<\/a> reported<\/a>, former Heritage Foundation national security director Robert Greenway said<\/a> two months after Khalil was arrested that it was \u201cno coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCR pointed to a \u201crange of harms\u201d Khalil has suffered as the result of being targeted by the Trump administration, starting when he was arrested in March 2025. During three months in detention, he was sent to Jena, Louisiana\u2014nearly 1,300 miles away from his family and lawyers\u2014and was forced to miss the birth of his first child. He also faces \u201can ongoing threat to his lawful immigration status in the United States<\/a>,\u201d with his attorneys preparing<\/a> to appeal his deportation case to the US Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baher Azmy, legal director for CCR, said that \u201cthe brazenness of this conspiratorial plan is matched only by the exquisitely detailed and shamelessly public record the conspirators produced of a collaborative plan to silence the growing student movement protesting US support for Israel\u2019s genocidal campaign,\u201d referring to the country\u2019s assault on Gaza<\/a> that began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conspirators acted through forms of state repression and arbitrary detention that numerous courts have found are blatantly unconstitutional,\u201d said Azmy. \u201cThey targeted Mr. Khalil, smeared him, and subjected him to the torment of detention for nothing other than being Palestinian and supporting Palestinian rights in order to send a message of terror across the student movement for Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe KKK Act was designed to prevent conspiracies to stifle advocacy for political freedom,\u201d he added, \u201cand together we are demanding accountability for this outrageous injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Julia Conley is a senior editor and staff writer for <\/em>Common Dreams.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JOIN THE BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS CAMPAIGN TO PROTEST THE ISRAELI BARBARIC GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA AND WEST BANK.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH <\/em><\/strong>729, WHICH INDICATES THAT THEY ARE PRODUCED IN ISRAEL. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR HUMAN JUSTICE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Jul 2026\u00a0–\u00a0\u201cThis case will expose the scheme that sought to criminalize the Palestine solidarity movement in the US.\u201d The lawsuit was filed under the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed to stop groups like the KKK to coordinate with the government to strip individuals of their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":318346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[229,2394,87,865,88,651,1243,427,3990,70,1025],"class_list":["post-318345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-activism","tag-civil-resistance","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-justice","tag-nonviolent-action","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-action","tag-usa","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318349,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318345\/revisions\/318349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}