*Three University of South Alabama students will remain behind bars while they fight federal charges tied to alleged threats against President Donald Trump.
A judge made that call Monday after a detention hearing for Amare Jemal Woods, Cameron Lamark Lewis and Kayla Leaann Smith, FOX10 News reported. Police took the students into custody on Oct. 2. Hours later, Trump headlined a midterm campaign rally at the Mitchell Center, the arena on their Mobile, Ala., campus. The school stressed that the rally was not its event. The Republican National Committee booked the venue.
Onstage, Trump recalled a Mobile rally from 2015, when his first presidential bid was just getting started. “It sort of all began here,” he told supporters.
The case grew out of online surveillance. FBI agents combed through social media chatter about the president’s trip in the days before he arrived. Local law enforcement, including the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, joined that effort.
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Two of the cases involve TikTok. Prosecutors say Woods and Smith each left threatening comments on the app. Agents linked one of the accounts to Smith by matching its phone number to hers.
Lewis faces accusations over a post on X. The FBI says he wrote that people would “remember the University of South Alabama the same way they remember Utah Valley University.” Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at the Utah school last year.
University officials condemned the alleged posts.
“The University of South Alabama unequivocally condemns any form of threats directed at elected officials or any individual with whom we disagree,” the school said. “However, there is a clear line between exercising free expression and engaging in intimidation or unlawful conduct.”
Woods’ lawyer is pushing back. According to Jason Darley, who represents Woods, the student’s posts never reflected a real plan to harm Trump.
“If this kid is a threat, then everybody pecking on a keyboard is a threat,” Darley said.
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