EXCLUSIVE: Mahmoud Khalil Alleges the Trump Admin and Pro-Israel Groups Coordinated to Target Him
A FOIA request obtained by Zeteo demands the government provide details of its communications about Khalil with several doxxing groups, a Columbia alumni chat, and Sens. Fetterman and Cruz.
Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team is demanding answers as to where exactly the Trump administration got the idea to target him in the first place. The demands underscore the legal team's suspicion that federal officials coordinated with a network of outside anti-Palestinian groups to target Khalil and others over their pro-Palestinian speech.
In a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request obtained by Zeteo, Khalil, a green card holder, and his legal team from the Center of Constitutional Rights seek information from several government agencies “that would document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organizations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights.”
Khalil’s legal team says in the FOIA request that patterns of the administration's arrests “strongly suggest” it’s acting at the encouragement of organizations that appear to coordinate with each other to target those advocating for Palestinian rights, and that take credit whenever those people are apprehended. “The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: to date, not a single reported revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing by one of these groups,” the FOIA reads.
In the FOIA request, his legal team lays out a timeline to support its requests for information and claims of possible collaboration:
January 2025: Blacklisting and doxxing website Canary Mission (reportedly tied to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs) creates a profile for Khalil on their website.
Late January: Militant pro-Israel group Betar USA identifies Khalil as one of its targets for deportation, posting on Twitter that ICE is “aware of his home address and whereabouts" and that they "have provided all his information to multiple contacts.”
Early March: Pro-Israel activists reportedly meet with members of Congress seeking Khalil’s deportation; Ross Glick, then-head of Betar USA, says he discussed his deportation efforts with Sen. John Fetterman and the office of Sens. Ted Cruz – all of whom, Glick claimed, expressed support for his efforts. Glick also claims that members of Columbia’s board of trustees reported Khalil.
March 6-7:
Canary Mission posts a social media video targeting Khalil.
“Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus” – a coalition of pro-Israel school alumni, faculty, and parents – posts Canary Mission’s page of Khalil on Twitter; the following day, it takes to Twitter to call on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to deport Khalil.
Columbia affiliates David Lederer and Shai Davidai (a professor who was suspended from campus for alleged harassment) echo the calls to deport Khalil — prompting Khalil to send emergency messages to Columbia administrators asking for help. In March, Davidai told Zeteo that he “never had a direct line to the administration,” and even if he did he “would never use such influence to target an individual.” In online posts, Davidai called Khalil a “terrorist supporter” and suggested he should be deported, tagging Secretary of State Rubio.
March 8: ICE arrests Khalil without a warrant, first wrongly saying his visa was revoked (he has a green card), then adjusting their claim to say his green card was revoked.
March 9: Pro-Israel surveillance network Shirion Collective, which is based in Israel, posts a memo it sent to DHS on January 27, that “lays out the legal basis” to target Khalil. “⚠️ This is what removed Mahmoud Khalil,” the group says.
March 13: Ryan Mauro, a staffer at Capital Research Center who published an October 2024 report calling on the government to “Deport terrorism-supporting foreign protestors,” publishes an op-ed smearing Khalil as a “terror threat,” and urges officials to consider his research to bolster the case to deport Khalil. The government subsequently cites Mauro in multiple filings in its case against Khalil.
Khalil’s FOIA request also notes that many of these groups have conspicuously targeted other individuals before the administration subsequently arrested them, including Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysa Öztürk, Momodou Taal, Dr. Badar Khan Suri, and Efe Ercelik. Earlier this month, a federal court found that Ercelik’s detention was "exclusively triggered” by Betar.
In the FOIA, Khalil’s legal team requested the disclosure of any communications since January 1 between the DOJ, ICE, State Department, or DHS and the aforementioned groups — as well as other groups like “Columbia Alumni for Israel,” a group chat of alumni, professors, and parents that have sought to identify and arrest and deport pro-Palestine students.
Additionally, the legal team requested records mentioning Khalil in Twitter communications, ICE’s “tip form,” and the DOJ’s complaint form. It also requested records or communications between the government and the offices of Sens. Fetterman and Cruz and Secretary Rubio between November 5 and April 1.
A State Department spokesperson told Zeteo: “Given our commitment to and responsibility for national security, the Department uses all available tools to receive and review concerning information when considering visa revocations about possible ineligibilities.”
Fetterman denied any involvement with Betar. “I do not support private organizations coming up with deportation lists, and in any event, I would never participate or assist in that,” he told Zeteo.
Daniel Levy of Betar Worldwide said the group “proudly” provides “the names of students involved in pro-Palestinian protests with the US government while also compiling lists of anti-Zionists and sending their details to the Israeli government to prevent their entry into Israel. We proudly share our information with governments and interested parties worldwide.”
The other groups listed in the FOIA, as well as DHS, the DOJ, Lederer, and Cruz, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
‘Unconstitutionally Vague’
The Trump administration targeted Khalil through the use of a little-tested authority given to the secretary of state to deport people on the grounds that they “compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”
But on Wednesday, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that the grounds are likely unconstitutional and that Khalil is likely to succeed on the idea that Rubio’s "foreign policy” determination is "unconstitutionally vague."
Judge Michael E. Farbiarz wrote that “arbitrary enforcement is not just a danger when many people enforce the law. It can also be a danger when one person is given the job, if his determination veers too far away from the standard set down by Congress. Here, the Secretary’s did.”
But Farbiarz stopped short of ordering Khalil’s release, saying his legal team needed to present further legal arguments about allegations the government has made that the Palestinian green card holder failed to disclose his membership in certain organizations on his visa application. Khalil remains in a Louisiana ICE detention facility – more than 1,000 miles away from home, his wife, and his newborn baby.
If you are a student affected by this or someone who works in or around the US government with relevant information about these developments, please contact me via email or Signal (premthakker.35).
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from the State Department, John Fetterman, and Daniel Levy.
Read more from Zeteo on Mahmoud Khalil and others targeted by Trump:
This is very upsetting and shows that the state department was outsourced to Zionist and foreign agents of Israel. I am saddened that our government agencies and universities are used to appease Zionists and genociders.
This new information is very upsetting. Our elected officials are plotting against students & professionals for exercising their rights to free speech....this should not be happening in America 🥺😞