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UPDATED: April 10 at 7:45 p.m.

Patrick Dai, who made violent threats against Jewish students attending Cornell University in October, pleaded guilty at the James M. Hanley Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse in Syracuse Wednesday.

Dai, a 21-year-old from Pittsford, NY, pleaded guilty to a single count of posting threats to kill or injure another person using interstate communications, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office sent to The Daily Orange.

“This defendant is being held accountable for vile, abhorrent, antisemitic threats of violence levied against members of the Cornell University Jewish community,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release. “In the elevated threat environment that we have seen since Oct. 7th, we have been vigilant and stand ready to hold perpetrators of hate crimes accountable.”

Dai is set for a sentencing hearing on Aug. 12 in Syracuse and faces a maximum ​​penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution to victims and a maximum of three years of supervised release, according to the release.

Dai admitted to posting on the online forum Greekrank on Oct. 28 and 29 threatening to kill Jewish Cornell students and “shoot up” the university’s dining hall, 104 West, that caters to Kosher diets, according to the release.

He also 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” in another post, according to the release. Dai also threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”

He appeared in court in Syracuse for his arraignment hearing on Nov. 1 and did not enter a plea. Dai was originally set to return to court for a probable cause hearing on Nov. 15, which was postponed.

Dai has been using prescribed medication for “severe depression and anxiety” though it “had not helped,” USA Today reported in November. Federal Public Defender Lisa Peebles said in court that Dai has an undiagnosed mental disability and is likely on the autism spectrum. She said his strength as a student “masked an apparent development disability,” citing isolation at Cornell and a three-semester leave of absence from the university.

Within four hours of his last post on Greekrank, Dai wrote an apology letter, which was written under the name “depressed suicidal person,” and accepted the possibility of punishment, CNY Central reported.

Peebles proposed that Dai be released on conditions, such as GPS monitoring. United States Magistrate Judge Thérèse Wiley Dancks said she saw no conditions in which the community and Dai would be safe, according to USA Today.

Dai told FBI agents in a November interview that his posts were intended to vilify Hamas and support Israel, according to CNY Central. He claims that his intent was to “support Jewish students by trying to show that pro-Hamas language is abhorrent,” CNY Central reported.

“The federal felony conviction he sustains today underscores that those who break the law by making violent threats will be found and prosecuted, even if they attempt to hide by posting anonymously,” U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said in the release.

This post will be updated with additional reporting.

Published on April 10, 2024 at 5:33 pm

Contact Kendall: kaluther@syr.edu