Justice Department Indicts Eight Pro-Palestinian Activists

The FBI arrested eight “college-aged adults” connected to pro-Palestinian advocacy on the University of Michigan’s campus, on Wednesday morning.

FBI Director Kash Patel alleged that the group of arrestees, aged 21–28, “engaged in a coordinated campaign of violent, criminal acts,” including threatening notes, spray-painting “Intifada” and “Free Palestine” on people’s homes, breaking windows, and “throwing glass jars filled with chemicals while children slept inside.”

The defendants, most of whom studied or worked at the University of Michigan, were indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. They face various charges, including federal counts of conspiracy to transmit threats, witness intimidation, and destruction of property to prevent seizure. The indictment alleges the group crossed the line into criminal activity in order to get the university to divest from Israel. They face between five to 20 years in prison.

A group of protesters coalesced around the courthouse that the eight defendants were taken to on Wednesday afternoon.

This is the most recent crackdown on pro-Palestinian advocacy from the administration.

“I’m sure in 50 years, the [University of Michigan] will be putting statues up to [the protesters] and saying how much they appreciated their courage in retrospect,” Michigan student James Johnson told MLive. “But right now, they’re being very cowardly at the very least.”

The eight charged are:

• Ahmet Kerem Korkaya, 28, of Milwaukee
• Alexander Matthew Sepulveda, 23, of Chicago
• Amatullah Aliasgar Hakim, 21, of Ann Arbor
• Colin Hunter Weger, 24, of Ann Arbor
• Jonathan Hongru Zou, 22, of Ann Arbor
• Mariam Muhammed Odeh, 24, of Dearborn
• Paige Elizabeth Feyock, 26, of Ann Arbor
• Zainab Aliasgar Hakim, 23, of Canton

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright admitted to Congress Wednesday that he made a false social media post about the Iran war in March.

While Wright testified before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam asked him about a post he made in March on X “that the U.S. Navy had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing through the global markets.”

“Was that true?” Subramanyam asked Wright, who admitted it was not.

“No. That was in error. It was not tweeted by me, but it was by my team that misunderstood something I said, but I take responsibility for it,” Wright said. Subramanyam then asked what he said to his team that was misunderstood.

Wright claimed that he said at a talk in Colorado that the U.S. would restore oil flow from the Strait of Hormuz. Subramanyam then questioned Wright’s claim on Tuesday that traffic is rising “meaningfully” through the strait. What that actually means was a point of contention between Wright and Subramanyam, as Wright would not give any specific numbers about how many barrels of oil were flowing.

Oil prices plummeted and stocks jumped soon after Wright’s erroneous post in March, which he deleted after sending the markets into a tailspin.

The oil that is leaving the Persian Gulf these days isn’t thanks to the U.S. Some of it may be due to oil tankers turning off their transponders, or through other means, such as a Saudi pipeline that flows east toward the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains under Iranian control, and peace talks between Iran and the U.S. seem to be stagnant despite Trump trying to claim that a deal is close.

President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that 100 million barrels of oil had been transported through the Strait of Hormuz—much to the energy secretary’s surprise!

In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that last month, he’d directed the military to conduct a “secret mission” to support the flow of energy through the essential trade passageway.

“Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market,” Trump wrote.

“More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait. This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz—NOT Iran,” Trump wrote. “Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost. It’s over for Iran!”

Trump’s sudden announcement came as he struggled to justify the U.S. economy reaching its highest annual inflation rate in three years—and the president’s impulsive social media posts haven’t helped the situation. It’s not clear whether Trump is actually telling the truth. His administration has a history of lying about this exact thing, and the president has a penchant for using the war with Iran to try to manipulate the stock market.

Trump’s claim is already failing the smell test. When asked about the 100 million barrels of oil Wednesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared confused and said he was “unaware” of the operation.

Ohio Representative Emilia Sykes pressed Wright on whether he thought Trump was lying. “I do not think the president is lying, I think the president is talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil,” Wright said, though clearly Trump was talking about oil that had made it out, not oil that had been blocked.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump divulged more details about the operation.

“You know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran until right now,” Trump said. “We took out, the other night, 22 ships, late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it.”

It’s no secret that some ships have been able to exit through the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, a U.S. defense official told CNBC that the U.S. was coordinating with ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz, but was not escorting vessels. Lloyd’s List Intelligence reported last week that roughly 40 ships stranded in the Persian Gulf have been able to exit the strait.

The numbers Trump is claiming would indicate clandestine energy flows of a far larger scale, but it’s worth noting that before the U.S. attacked Iran, an average of 20 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz every day. That means the transit of more than two billion barrels of oil has been stalled in the 103 days since the U.S. and Israel first launched military strikes against Iran.

This story has been updated.

A House committee hearing exploded into bluster and blunder Wednesday after Energy Secretary Chris Wright was called out for singularly defunding clean energy projects in blue states.

Wright appeared before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to discuss oil shocks from the Iran war—but one particular exchange with Representative Gabe Amo put a spotlight on the unconstitutional use of his office.

At issue was nearly $8 billion in Biden-era grants for clean energy projects that the White House gutted in October. Democrats have described the canceled grants as politically motivated retaliation by the Trump administration against liberal areas of the country.

Amo quoted from a lawsuit filed against the Department of Energy, citing that the “primary reason” clean energy grants were funded or not funded in October 2025 was whether the grantee was “located in a blue state.”

“The court rightfully found that you violated the Constitution. The only meaningful difference between the seven projects that won in court—and the hundreds of others—is that those plaintiffs sued,” Amo said. “So, Secretary Wright, my question is simple: When will you restore the funding for all the projects that were wrongfully terminated?”

Wright appeared visibly irritated by the question.

“Number one, you haven’t read the document or misinterpreted the document. We did not involve politics in the decision-making of our review process. Hands down, did not,” Wright said.

“What about the outcomes, Mr. Secretary?” pressed Amo.

That’s when the niceties ended, and the profanities began.

“The court ruling you read—was a choice of announcements of some of the awards … not made by our department. No decisions, no decisions were made on politics,” Wright said. “It’s bullshit.”

Amo then called for a note on parliamentary procedure, incredulously questioning if the committee was OK with “promoting language like that from witnesses.”

“Watch your language there, Mr. Secretary,” drawled Committee Chair Brian Babin.

Amo then tore into Wright. “Here’s the problem with your administration. You’re willing to huff and puff when it comes to showing up in front of Congress when your audience of one is paying attention. But the fact of the matter is, my constituents—and the constituents of people across this Congress—are struggling because of your decisions. And yet you want to use language like that, act out of hand, behave poorly, so you can prove that you have loyalty to the president,” Amo said.

“That’s not how this works,” declared the Rhode Island lawmaker. “Do your job.”

Racist right-wing activist and pardoned January 6 insurrectionist Jake Lang was arrested in Dallas on Tuesday night for making “terroristic threats.” His bail is set at $1 million. Lang was visiting Texas to stir up racial animus around the trial of Karmelo Anthony, a Black teenager who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing a white teenager at a track meet last year.

“They ripped me off the plane, dozens of officers treating me like El Chapo.… They’ve arrested me for a felony, what’s called ‘terroristic threats,’ simply because I said that if the jury did not find Karmelo Anthony guilty, that we the people will deal with justice,” Lang said, in a phone call posted on his X account, suggesting that his call for extrajudicial mob violence against a Black teenager was somehow reasonable.

“This is two-tiered persecution against the white people of this world. We are under attack, and what they’re doing to me they want to do to all of us,” Lang continued.

Lang—who is in the midst of an unserious Senate campaign in Florida—was also arrested earlier this week in Texas for trespassing in Frisco City Hall while protesting the same trial. One in 16 pardoned January 6 insurrectionists have been arrested again for other crimes.