ITHACA, N.Y. — Former Cornell University student Patrick Dai pled guilty on Wednesday to a single charge connected to threats he made on an online forum against Jewish students on Cornell’s campus in October.
Dai, originally from Pittsford, pled guilty in federal court in Syracuse Wednesday afternoon to a charge of interstate threatening communications. He will be sentenced on Aug. 12, 2024 in Syracuse.
Dai faces up to five years of prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, a $100,000 court fee and up to three years of post-incarceration supervised release, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southworth.
Southworth said Dai will be kept in the custody of the U.S. Marshals in Broome County Jail until his sentencing.
Dai pled guilty to using various usernames in late October to post threats to Cornell’s page GreekRanks, a forum for college students. He threatened to “shoot up” 104West, one of the Jewish student community centers on Cornell’s campus that includes a kosher dining hall. There were several other death and rape threats aimed at Jewish students included in the posts, which were made over a span of about two days.
Dai was arrested on Oct. 30, the same day Gov. Kathy Hochul came to Cornell University’s campus to show solidarity with Jewish students there in the wake of the threats.
In subsequent posts to the GreekRanks, Dai apologized for the threats. A search of his apartment in Collegetown did not uncover any weapons that could have been used in an attack.
The plea was first reported the expectation of a guilty plea Wednesday morning by Gary Craig, a reporter currently on strike from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.