Former El-Sayed campaign organizer is among 12 now indicted in federal case over threats to U-M officials and Detroit's Jewish Federation

Federal prosecutors in Michigan have now indicted 12 people in an alleged campaign of threats and vandalism aimed at forcing the University of Michigan to cut ties with Israel. Targets included university officials, businesses and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. One of the defendants, Mariam Odeh, 24, of Dearborn, worked briefly as an hourly organizer for Abdul El-Sayed's Democratic Senate campaign, the New York Post and Michigan News Source report.

A federal grand jury added four defendants on Friday: Aaron Hunter Vonbargen, 25, and Henry David MacKeen-Shapiro, Joseph Mark Fisher and Srishti Tarana Sharma, all 23. MacKeen-Shapiro and Vonbargen were arrested last week; Fisher and Sharma were still at large as of the Oct. 30 announcement. "These alleged attempts to terrorize our Jewish community and government officials are nothing new," said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. "From Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas, those who terrorize Jews have been the bad guys."

Odeh was charged in June with conspiracy to transmit threats. The indictment says she and others vandalized a Rolls-Royce Solutions America building in Novi in June 2024 padlocking its doors and spray-painting "FREE PALESTINE" and "LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA" on the sidewalk. El-Sayed's campaign said in June that she worked for it for less than two months as an hourly organizer, left in April, and that "we were not aware of any allegations against her when she was hired," Deadline Detroit reported. Odeh's attorneys and the El-Sayed campaign did not respond to the Post's requests for comment this week.

The case is resurfacing on X on Election Day as El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.