Department of Justice officials visit UC Berkeley amid Turning Point USA protest investigation

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- The US Department of Justice is looking into what happened at UC Berkeley Monday night, following the protests that broke out in response to the Turning Point USA event.

On Thursday, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division visited campus to meet with the TPUSA's Berkeley Chapter President.

"We have a lot of threads to follow up. This is a top priority, this incident that occurred here, for the Department of Justice and for the Trump administration.

Dhillon said she had already had a conversation with President Donald Trump about what occurred at Berkeley, and that the administration is concerned about persistent violence on Berkeley's campus and in the city over the years.

"The DOJ is not going to allow this violence on this campus to go unanswered," Dhillon said.

RELATED: DOJ investigating protests at UC Berkeley during Turning Point USA tour finale

Dhillon's visit also comes as comedian Rob Schneider plans to sue the school over its handling of the protests. He was a speaker.

Schneider took to social media, saying the university should have done more to protect its own students. A philosopher who took part in the event has echoed Schneider's thoughts in an online post.

Dhillon fired off a series of posts on X throughout the week in response to Monday night's protests. Three people were arrested, including a student who was cited and let go.

"I want to be clear that the United States doesn't downplay this by saying, 'A little bit of violence is OK. Largely peaceful, this is OK.' There's no such thing," Dhillon said.

There were also concerns over the ticketing process.

RELATED: Fights break out, multiple people arrested as Turning Point USA event sparks protest at UC Berkeley

"Was it handled in a discriminatory fashion, how the staff handled it?" Dhillon said. "And you know, student groups and reported student groups that may or may not be student groups, who openly advocated for violence and interference."

Dhillon, a former San Francisco attorney, previously led a free speech lawsuit against UC Berkeley on behalf of Republican student organizations in 2018. It ended in a settlement that required changes to university policies governing campus events, including those hosted by groups like TPUSA.

"I do think there were some failures of what occurred here," Dhillon said. "The only questions are who are the perpetrators involved, who helped them, and who supported them financially?

U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian and FBI-SF Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo were also on campus with Dhillon.

"We are here to send a very strong message: There is no place in this country where the values of the First Amendment and free speech are more important than our college campuses," said Missakian. "And what happened here, at the Turning Point USA event is unacceptable. We very much believe in the values of free speech. We don't care about your viewpoint -- whether you're on the conservative end of the spectrum or the liberal end of the spectrum, and anywhere in between. We are here to protect your right to express your opinion but express it peacefully."

While the DOJ is examining the university's response, or what it calls a potential lack of response, protest organizers are also voicing criticism.

"The DOJ is most likely to blame the UCB administration for the complete failure of Turning Point's fascist recruitment rally in Berkeley. To be fair, the UCB administration did everything it could possibly do to suppress student involvement," said Mark Airgood, a protest organizer with By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN.

"Certainly, the UC administration, the UC Berkeley administration went all out to make sure that Turning Point had the red carpet rolled out for them," Airgood said.

Both pointed out UC Berkeley's status as a public university.

"The President wants every American student of all political persuasions around the country to feel like they be able to go to school and get an education. And a lot of that's funded by the federal government," Dhillon said.

"The Trump administration believes that UC is the most likely university cohort who would agree to pay massive amounts of money to Trump, to prevent an attempt to withhold even greater sums of money from the Trump administration for research," Airgood said.

Federal investigators are expected to speak with witnesses, attendees and students as the national debate over free speech on public campuses continues.

"I think for the Turning Point folks, to cast it as some kind of free speech for Turning Point is really absolutely false," Airgood said.