Zoe Edelman, the granddaughter of Marian Wright Edelman, a figure Hillary Clinton has often referred to as her "hero and mentor," has been officially charged with felony vandalism and trespassing.
This follows an incident last year where she was involved in an anti-Israel protest that culminated in the "ransacking" of the Stanford University presidents office.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced the charges against Edelman and eleven other suspects. Edelman was arrested following the office takeover in June of last year, but the case has been in a state of uncertainty for several months as prosecutors deliberated on whether to proceed with charges. In California, both felony vandalism and conspiracy to trespass can lead to potential jail sentences.
The DAs office described the actions of Edelman and her co-conspirators as a "calculated plan of destruction" at Stanford, which resulted in extensive damage to campus buildings, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rosen drew a clear distinction between lawful protest and criminal activity, stating, "Dissent is American. Vandalism is criminal. There is a bright line between making a point and committing a crime. These defendants crossed the line into criminality when they broke into those offices, barricaded themselves inside, and started a calculated plan of destruction."
Edelman, a senior at Stanford and a member of the anti-Israel group "Liberate Stanford," has a notable left-wing lineage. She has been photographed with Hillary Clinton at a Washington, D.C. gala in 2022. Her father, Josh Edelman, held a long-term position as the K-12 deputy director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and her grandfather served in the Department of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. Her grandmother, Marian Wright Edelman, supervised Hillary Clintons internship at the Childrens Defense Fund during Clinton's time at Yale Law School.
Clinton has openly acknowledged the influence of Marian Wright Edelman on her life and career. In The Person Who Changed My Life, a book on mentorship edited by Matilda Cuomo, Clinton wrote, "Adults can have mentors, too. I had one after I met Marian Wright Edelman during my first year of Yale Law School. Marian, a civil rights lawyer and children's advocate, inspired my own commitment to justice."
The DAs office stated last week that the activists involved in the building takeover had meticulously planned their actions. The anti-Israel protesters, armed with "hammers, crowbars, [and] chisels," allegedly broke into the presidents office building around 5:30 a.m., where they "broke windows and furniture, splashed fake blood, and disabled security cameras." After barricading themselves inside the building, they "began recording social media videos that listed a series of demands."
The DAs office also revealed that cell phones recovered from the suspects showed that they "met on multiple occasions, days in advance, to conspire to take over the building" and exchanged "encrypted text messages and links to detailed operational plans." These messages included a "DO-IT-YOURSELF OCCUPATION GUIDE," which advocated for vandalism.
The guide, circulated by pro-Hamas campus organizers, stated, "Occupying a space removes the space from the capitalist landscape. A group may decide it is better to destroy or vandalize a space than to return it to its usual role in good condition."
Edelman is set to be arraigned later this month, as per the DAs office. This case serves as a stark reminder of the fine line between lawful protest and criminal activity, a line that, according to Rosen, was clearly crossed in this instance.
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