Haverford professor accused of sending antisemitic threats to a colleague is detained until trial
Guangtian Ha, an assistant professor of religion at Haverford College, is accused of sending more than 50 threats via X.
A Haverford College professor accused of cyberstalking and issuing antisemitic threats to a colleague will be held in custody until his trial, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Guangtian Ha, an assistant professor of religion, was arrested last week following an FBI investigation. Prosecutors said he used several anonymous accounts on X to send hateful, antisemitic messages to his colleague off and on from October 2025 until May. Prosecutors allege Ha’s posts also exposed his colleague’s home address, infant child’s name, and pictures of the home’s exterior.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Carissimi said Tuesday Ha had demonstrated a “persistent obsession” with terrorizing the victims, and his online activity could not be effectively monitored if he were released before trial.
The spouse and children of the colleague, who has not been named publicly, fled their home, which is in the same neighborhood as Ha’s. Ha sent more than 50 messages across the various accounts, at times threatening the colleague specifically and at others threatening Jewish people more broadly, invoking Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Oct. 7 attacks, according to court documents.
Ha pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday.
Despite the allegations, roughly a dozen Haverford professors across departments, friends, and Ha’s family came to show their support at the hearing. They said the hateful messages did not represent the man they knew. Ha has no prior criminal record, his attorney Susan Lin said, and has a wife and young child. He came to the United States in 2007.
“Nobody here is going to defend the content of these posts,” Lin said in court, before identifying Ha’s supporters and inviting two to testify to Ha’s character, arguing he should not be in custody while awaiting trial.
“I’ve always known [Ha] as someone who is very justice oriented” and who cared for students and marginalized people, said Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia, a civil rights advocacy group focused on Islamic civil liberties and fighting hate speech, in a court testimony on behalf of Ha.
“He’s a great human being. I’ve learned a lot from him,” David Harrington Watt, a professor of Quaker studies at Haverford, told the court. Watt, who is Christian but teaches courses on antisemitism, said it was “painful” to read details about the messages Ha allegedly sent, calling them “tragic” and “inexplicable.”
“Everyone that I know is shocked that this came out … it does feel extremely out of character,” Lillie Olliver, 24, a 2025 graduate from Bryn Mawr College who studied under Ha while writing a thesis in Haverford’s religion department, said before the hearing.
Magistrate Judge Pamela A. Carlos explained her decision to detain Ha was based upon her “very serious concern” that the X posts had threatened not only Ha’s colleague and family, but Jewish people generally. She also expressed worry for Ha being a flight risk, given that he holds a Chinese passport and has traveled abroad.
It’s unclear when Ha’s next court date will be. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.
