Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, on Thursday to investigate the Passover arson attack against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) as a possible hate crime.
Schumer, who often refers to himself as the highest-ranking elected U.S. Jewish official in history, stated in the letter to Bondi that the U.S. Justice Department, in coordination with the FBI, should do “everything in its power to pursue justice and uphold the fundamental values of religious freedom and public safety.”
“Passover is meant to be a time of family, reflection and happiness as Jewish families across the globe celebrate our freedom,” Schumer said.
“Instead, it was a brutal reminder of the hatred, brutality and viciousness that still lives among us—both for the Shapiro family and for the millions of Americans who observed this appalling attack with heartbreak,” he stated.
JNS sought comment from the U.S. Justice Department.
“I am deeply relieved that Gov. Shapiro and his family are safe, thankful for the first responders who arrived on the scene and applaud the police work that resulted in an arrest just hours ago,” Bondi stated following the attack.
Shapiro said he had “total and complete confidence” in Francis Chardo, the district attorney of Dauphin County, “to charge this case as he sees fit.”
“I’m not going to weigh in on what those charges should be,” Shapiro said on Thursday at a Harrisburg fire station, after he and his family helped serve lunch to the firefighters who responded to the arson attack.
“I’m not going to question his judgment,” Shapiro said. “Should the Department of Justice choose to bring charges, I will also respect their decision to do just that.”
Shapiro did question Schumer’s comment.
“I don’t think it’s helpful for people on the outside—who haven’t seen the evidence, who don’t know what occurred, who are applying their own viewpoints to the situation—to weigh in on that matter,” the governor said.
“My trust is with the prosecutor,” Shapiro added. “He’ll make the right decision, and we’ll be fully supportive of whatever decision he makes.”
Cody Balmer was charged with setting a fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion shortly after Shapiro and his family held the first of two Passover seders there. No one was injured, but there was extensive damage to the Harrisburg home.
Shapiro said the attack wouldn’t deter him “from openly and proudly practicing my faith.”
In a search warrant, state police quoted Balmer as complaining about what Shapiro “wants to do to the Palestinian people” and that “our people have been put through too much by that monster.”
The warrant sought access to cell phones, laptops, tablets and any other electronic devices that could store or transmit information, as well as any writings or notes referencing Shapiro, Israel, Palestine, Gaza or the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Shapiro declined to say at a press conference on Wednesday if he believed he was targeted because of his faith. “That’s a question for the prosecutors to determine,” he said. “It’s not for me to answer.”
Schumer said that the Justice Department needs to find out.
“Our federal authorities must bring the full weight of our civil-rights laws to bear in examining this matter,” he wrote to the department. “No person or public official should be targeted because of their faith, and no community should wonder whether such acts will be met with silence.”