Federal prosecutors say a group of anti-Israel activists in Michigan spent months trying to frighten people into cutting ties with Israel. They allegedly vandalized the homes of University of Michigan board members and the home of the school's then-president. They put fake corpses on front lawns, smashed windows, and threw jars of noxious chemicals into houses where families lived. They spray-painted threats and posted videos of the attacks online with a message for the victims: "you cannot hide."
Their targets included university leaders, campus police, the Jewish Federation of Detroit, and businesses they believed had ties to Israel.
Twelve people are now indicted. Mariam Odeh, 24, of Dearborn, is one of them. She worked for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
Odeh was one of the first eight people indicted in June. Four more were charged in an expanded indictment late last week. She faces a federal charge of conspiracy to transmit threats, which carries up to five years in prison. Prosecutors also say she took part in a 2024 attack on a Rolls-Royce facility in Detroit. The group padlocked the doors and painted "LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA" on the sidewalk.
U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon didn't soften it. "From Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas, those who terrorize Jews have been the bad guys," he said. "As Americans, our job is to fight the bad guys."
El-Sayed's campaign has spent months shrinking Odeh's role. Spokeswoman Roxie Richner said Odeh was an hourly employee for two weeks and hasn't been with the campaign since April 15. Campaign finance records show two paychecks totaling $747. Then the campaign said she was actually hired in February. That's two months on the payroll, which isn't two weeks.
What El-Sayed said after the first indictments came down is worse.
At a campaign event in June, he suggested the defendants weren't really being prosecuted for what they did. "It's a lot more about what you're advocating for that gets you indicted or not indicted, rather than what you did," he said.
Look at what the indictment says they did: chemicals thrown into family homes, fake bodies left on lawns, threats painted for the neighbors to see. El-Sayed looked at all of that and said the real issue was a justice system targeting people over their politics.
Afterward, he told reporters that going after families and property was wrong. Then he added, "I don't love watching our justice system treat people differently based on what it is that they were advocating for."
Fellow Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost the Senate primary to El-Sayed by one point, publicly condemned his "equivocation." Days before the election, she went further and endorsed his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
Michigan voted yesterday. Whatever the final count shows, El-Sayed made his position clear months ago. When his own former campaign worker was charged with helping terrorize Jewish families, he called it a case about free speech. He then asked those same Michigan voters to send him to the U.S. Senate.