Prosecutors have filed federal hate crime charges against a man accused of stabbing five Jewish worshipers during a Hanukkah gathering at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, Saturday evening. Officials say they discovered anti-Semitic writing, references to Hitler and swastikas in the journal of suspect Grafton Thomas. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has condemned the attack as domestic terrorism. Thomas’s friends and lawyer say Thomas is mentally ill.

Michael Sussman: “My impression from speaking with him is that he needs serious psychiatric evaluation. And that is the primary focus. I don’t know whether those who are making these charges have spent a moment speaking with him or relating to him, but my impression from what I have read and my conversation with him is these are severe psychiatric issues.”