By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) — The US Justice Department is investigating whether individuals involved in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year violated federal anti-terrorism laws, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday.

The DOJ is looking into “whether Columbia’s handling of earlier instances violated civil rights laws that included terrorism crimes,” Blanche said in an address to department employees ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled speech Friday afternoon. “This is long overdue.”

“Let me be clear: Hamas is a terrorist organization. It has the blood of American citizens on his hands,” Blanche added. “Any person engaging in the material support of terrorism will be prosecuted. This includes those who threaten acts of violence on behalf of Hamas in the United States or even pay Hamas in the United States.”

His comments come amid a crackdown from the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement agencies on antisemitism – some of which have sparked uproar both at Columbia and civil rights organizations across the country, particularly over the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian refugee? whose green card was revoked over his involvement in the protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia last spring.

The department is also investigating whether Columbia University was harboring or concealing immigrants who are in the United States illegally, Blanche said.

Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security were at on Columbia’s campus in New York Thursday night, CNN reported, serving search warrants to look through two student rooms. The university’s interim president said that “No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken.”

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