Lansing, Michigan - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel abruptly dropped all charges against students arrested after protesting in solidarity with Palestinians last year.

Just as a judge was reportedly set to rule on a request to dismiss the case on the grounds of prosecutorial bias, Nessel's office announced it was dropping charges against seven people who were accused of trespassing and resisting arrest at University of Michigan protests in May 2024.

The move follows hugely damaging revelations that the Democrat had extensive contact with the school's regents, who had been pushing hard for a crackdown on the campus movement for Palestinian human rights, amid Israel's US-sponsored destruction of Gaza.

According to a Guardian report, Nessel was recruited by university leadership in order to bypass local district attorneys. Regents, along with pro-Israel groups, also donated heavily to her political campaigns, all while the Michigan attorney general's office disproportionately went after pro-Palestinians students and protestors.

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At the end of April, Nessel ordered an extraordinary, multi-agency raid on activists, whose homes were violently broken into over accusations of "vandalism."

"This is not just a victory for these students today," the defendants' attorney Amir Makled said in court. "This is a victory for everybody who believes in the right to free speech."

"As we've always said, this was not about trespass. This was not about felony conduct. This was about the criminalization of free speech."

"Today, we want to remember that this is not the end. There's still students across the country that are facing this persecution. There is still a genocide that is happening in Palestine, and we should never forget that today, we still get to stand firm and say: free Palestine!"

Nessel also released a statement, complaining of "baseless and absurd allegations of bias" and expressing no regret over the failed prosecutions.