Federal Probe Targets UC Berkeley After Turning Point USA Event Erupts in Clashes

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday it is investigating how UC Berkeley prepared for a Turning Point USA event on Monday night that sparked intense protests on campus.

In two letters posted on X and addressed to university officials, the department’s Civil Rights Division requested campus communication records related to how the university prepared security for the event and responded to the protests.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote that the division is determining whether to include Monday night’s events in ongoing Civil Rights investigations into the University of California system or to open new ones.

“I see several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA,” Dhillon, the San Francisco lawyer and Republican activist tapped to head the civil rights division by President Donald Trump, wrote on X.

Organizers of the protests framed the incidents differently.

“Pro-TPUSA people tried to agitate members of the crowd, but for the most part, attendees just ignored them, gently led them out of the crowd, and carried on with chants and dancing. Our event, which lasted more than five hours without major incident, was a positive affirmation of our diverse and supportive community.” SF Bay Activists Media Team wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said the university denounces violence and is committed to holding accountable anyone who breaks the law or campus rules.

“The University is conducting a full investigation and intends to fully cooperate with and assist any federal investigations and the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force to identify the outside agitators responsible for attempting to disrupt last night’s TPUSA event,” Mogulof told KQED in a statement. “UC Berkeley will take all appropriate steps to safeguard the right of every member of our community to speak and assemble freely.”

Hundreds of protesters clashed with law enforcement and attendees of a Turning Point USA event on Monday night at UC Berkeley. Kirk, the late conservative activist, co-founded the far-right youth movement.

UC Berkeley said it increased security given the event’s timing — two months after Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University during the opening leg of his nationwide college tour. He was scheduled to headline Monday’s event.

Barricades lined Lower Sproul Plaza, a main thoroughfare on campus. Protesters shouted chants, calling those in attendance “fascists” and “Nazis.” The demonstrations intensified as hundreds voiced their opposition, forcing event organizers to close or move some of the entrances for attendees.

In one of the most dramatic altercations, protesters rushed a barricade but were held back by over two dozen police officers. The standoff lasted several hours.

Several additional clashes broke out between Kirk supporters and protesters. In one altercation, a man selling “Freedom” T-shirts got into a fistfight. His face was bloodied as police detained him and one of the demonstrators involved.

Berkeley police arrested at least two people. A Berkeley police spokesperson said no further details were available, except that the cases involved “fighting amongst themselves.” University police arrested one other person, according to Mogulof.

“At first it was a little scary when rocks and paint in glass bottles started coming over,” said Pacifica resident Eli Mehrling, 25, a Turning Point USA supporter, referring to objects thrown by protesters at police across the barricades. “But it’s really just kind of infuriating that when we have an event, they try to shut it down. We’re not the fascists. The people who shut us down with violence are a lot more akin to the fascists than we are.”

Kirk, a self-described free speech advocate and outspoken Christian, rose to national prominence as the co-founder of Turning Point USA, which promotes conservative values on high school and college campuses. He helped mobilize young conservatives on issues, including abortion, LGBTQ rights and DEI policies.

The organization, which once created a website identifying college instructors it claimed discriminated against conservative students, expanded beyond campus activism to become a major engine for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

In the days after Kirk’s death in September, the Trump administration used the killing to justify a crackdown on political dissent.

“What Charlie Kirk and Turning Point has been trying to do isn’t champion free speech or open debate. It’s to try and bully and intimidate people into silence and we won’t accept that,” said Hoku Jeffrey, one of the organizers of Monday’s protests.

Inside a sold-out Zellerbach Hall, a sea of red “Make America Great Again” hats filled the seats. The mood was upbeat as attendees filed in to The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”

“If only we had this kind of security at the border,” joked comedian Joebob Taeliefi, who warmed up the crowd and took aim at the “blue-haired” protesters outside.

Before the headliners — actor Rob Schneider and Christian author and activist Frank Turek spoke — Turning Point’s UC Berkeley chapter president, John Paul Leon, led a moment of silence for Kirk. An empty chair on stage bore a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Freedom.”

“The sad truth is the left is not your friend,” Leon said during the event. “To all those protesters outside, I have one thing to say: It is clear to us which side is winning when your side becomes the violent agitators. When you try to win with force and not reason, you have already lost the intellectual battle. They want to destroy any ounce of conservatism that they can get their filthy paws on.”

While Turning Point supporters said the organization promotes free speech and conservative values, many protesters saw Monday’s event as an affront to human rights.

“I think that it’s more important now than ever for us to be united here as students and really make it absolutely clear that this amount of hate and this rhetoric of destruction and eliminating people’s dignity has no place here in Berkeley,” said Sofia Ruiz, a freshman political science major who joined the protest.

UC Berkeley has experience with protests ignited by incendiary speakers. In 2017, violent protests forced the cancellation of a speech by conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.