Whistleblowers claim Trump officials played politics with university antisemitism probes

Career Justice Department civil rights attorneys, led by Haley Van Erem, told Congress that the Trump administration's interagency task force on campus antisemitism was 'subordinate to political priorities' rather than grounded in civil rights enforcement. The whistleblowers say the task force, which announced the cancellation of roughly $400 million in Columbia University grants in March 2025 and investigated up to 60 schools including Harvard and Brown, worked backward from desired settlement terms rather than substantiated findings.

According to the complaint, HHS's acting general counsel Sean Keveney told staff the goal was to force universities into lawsuits via a 'poison pill' settlement clause no school could accept, and that investigators were given less than a business day to review findings against Columbia. At Brown, Justice Department assignees reportedly found no Title VI violations, yet 'unspecified stakeholders' demanded further action anyway, and $500 million in funding remained blocked.

Attorneys who raised objections say they were told legal advice and legal determinations were not their job, and were redirected to address concerns with Keveney personally rather than through normal channels.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.