Patrick Dai, 22, a former Cornell University student who pleaded guilty in April to threatening to rape and murder Jews, was sentenced on Monday to 21 months in jail, three subsequent years of supervised release and a $100 “assessment,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.
“Every student has the right to pursue their education without fear of violence based on who they are, how they look, where they are from or how they worship,” stated Kristen Clarke, assistant U.S. attorney general in the department’s civil rights division.
“Antisemitic threats of violence, like the defendant’s vicious and graphic threats here, violate that right,” Clarke said. “Today’s sentencing reaffirms that we will hold accountable those who violently threaten and intimidate others based on their religious practice or background.”
Before sentencing, the court “found that this was a hate crime under the federal sentencing guidelines because Dai targeted Jewish students and substantially disrupted the university’s core function of educating its students,” stated Carla Freedman, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.
“The defendant’s threats terrorized the Cornell campus community for days and shattered the community’s sense of safety,” Freedman added. “My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute threats and acts of violence motivated by antisemitism and by hatred of any kind.”
Craig Tremaroli, special agent in charge of the FBI Albany field office, added that “Dai’s actions serve as a disturbing reminder of the terrifying hatred our Jewish communities encounter simply because of their beliefs.”
In April, Dai admitted to posting online threats—including that he was “gonna shoot up 104 west,” a kosher dining hall near the university’s Jewish center, and was “gonna bomb Jewish house"—on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, per the Justice Department.
“In another post, Dai threatened to ‘stab’ and ‘slit the throat’ of any Jewish man he saw on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish women he saw and to behead any Jewish babies,” the Justice Department added. “In that same post, Dai threatened to ‘bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews.’”
