Jan 31, 2026 minute read

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the Department of Justice will investigate and determine whether federal law was broken after far-left activists disrupted an event at a Jewish temple.

“I previously retweeted a post about this disruption in a synagogue, but the original post was deleted,” Dhillon said on X. “To be clear [DOJ Civil Rights Division] will investigate the full facts here to evaluate whether federal law has been broken.”

Last week, activists stormed the synagogue while Democratic Long Island Representative Tom Suozzi was speaking. The protesters were affiliated with Climate Defiance and said they were targeting Suozzi over his initial vote in support of a Republican-led spending bill that increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

During the disruption, activists entered the temple with diapers and kneepads and shouted obscenities at Suozzi. Video posted by the group shows one activist saying, “I actually have some gifts — I have some kneepads for you — you can use these while you blow Donald Trump.”

Another activist handed Suozzi a diaper and said he was someone who would “soil themselves when the fascists are at our door.”

“As a Jewish man, I have never felt safer than when there is a masked Gestapo in the street, so thank you, Congressman Tom Suozzi, for funding ICE,” a third activist said.

The incident occurred despite Suozzi having already walked back his vote. After Congress passed the $64.4 billion Department of Homeland Security funding package, which included a $10 billion increase for ICE, Suozzi issued an apology. Following the shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota, Suozzi said, “I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis.”

“I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE’s unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that,” he added.

Despite this, Climate Defiance activists continued to target Suozzi during the synagogue disruption, shouting, “Tell Renee Good you made a mistake, tell Alex Pretti you made a mistake.”

Among those involved was Walter Masterson, a left-wing comedian and activist, who was escorted out by security while attempting to read the names of individuals who died in ICE-related incidents.

Climate Defiance later defended the disruption of the religious service in an online statement, calling Suozzi a “hideous, grotesque, fascist-loving coward” with “blood on his hands.”