Whistleblowers claim Trump officials played politics with university antisemitism probes

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Trump administration’s probe into antisemitic harassment at U.S. universities was hampered by political influence and officials ignored the advice of their investigative team when withholding millions of federal dollars from those institutions, according to whistleblowers.The explosive accusations, revealed to members of Congress on Monday, came from a group of career Justice Department civil rights attorneys who say the interagency task force convened to address campus antisemitism was “subordinate to political priorities” and that task force leaders sidelined them when they raised questions.The Trump administration last year formed a task force it said would “root out antisemitic harassment” in schools and universities. The interagency investigative team was created in response to pro-Palestine protests and demonstrations on U.S. campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza, which killed tens of thousand of Palestinians and displaced millions.The task force, composed of representatives from the Justice Department, Health and Human Services Department, Education Department and other agencies, announced in March 2025 that the government had canceled roughly $400 million in grants to Columbia University, contending the institution had violated the Title VI rights of its Jewish and Israeli students by allowing “persistent harassment” on campus.As many as 60 schools, including Harvard University and Brown University, were similarly investigated.Now, Justice Department whistleblowers led by civil rights attorney Haley Van Erem have told Congress there are “significant concerns” about how the task force carried out its investigation. They say the probe’s outcome was predetermined and often disregarded the conclusions of the investigative team.Van Erem, through whistleblower advocacy organization the Government Accountability Project, told top House and Senate lawmakers the Title VI investigation was “subordinate to political priorities rather than the enforcement of civil rights” and that its findings were “implemented at the expense of regular decisionmaking and enforcement processes that exist to protect against constitutional and statutory violations.”“These developments warrant urgent and fulsome oversight and investigation,” she said.Van Erem, assigned to the task force in March 2025 from the Justice Department’s special litigation section, worked alongside attorneys from participating agencies under Sean Keveney, acting general counsel at HHS. Keveney, the whistleblowers said in the report, told members of the task force their goal was to force universities into lawsuits that would result in the schools losing federal funds.Keveney initially said the government would try to include a “poison pill” in any settlement with a university under investigation requiring them to admit liability. He acknowledged a university would “never be able to accept” such a condition and would be forced into court.During that April 1 meeting, the whistleblowers say Justice Department attorneys asked about the Columbia investigation, informed by a media article on antisemitic harassment at the institution’s medical school. HHS staff reportedly acknowledged there “may not be much evidence” of Title VI violations at the medical school.“The DOJ assignees learned that, rather than close the investigation, HHS had instead decided to expand it beyond the medical schools,” Van Erem said. “This was one of the first major indications to the DOJ assignees that the investigations were not grounded in law or fact.”The whistleblowers argue task force staff were encouraged to “invert the standard sequence of investigation” and work backward from desired settlement terms with Columbia, including provisions not tied to substantiated violations to “generate proposed findings that would support those terms.”Task force staff were also not given enough time to review findings of discrimination at Columbia, though some found instances of accused antisemitism that would not violate Title VI protections and others that would be considered protected speech under the First Amendment. Van Erem said she was given less than one business day to review findings against Columbia drafted by the HHS civil rights office.“The rushed review of the factual findings letter constituted abuse of authority, a potential violation of Title VI regulations, and potential violation of the Administrative Procedure Act through arbitrary and capricious enforcement ungrounded in investigative factual findings,” the experts wrote.Similar approaches were taken in probes of other universities, said Van Erem. Task force leaders investigating Brown University reportedly put together a plan to systematically interview Middle East studies professors, including ones not connected to complaints of antisemitism.Van Erem in May met with task force leaders and said Justice Department assignees had found no Title VI violations at Brown. While they acknowledged the team had done a good job demonstrating the Trump administration should move on from probing the university, “unspecified ‘stakeholders’” approached the task force “demanding action.”The whistleblowers also accuse leaders of the task force of reprimanding attorneys who raised questions about the investigation.After Van Erem asked HHS attorneys via email to explain their basis for blocking $500 million in previously awarded funds to Brown even as the task force gathered evidence, Keveney said attorneys should address such concerns with him personally.“Curiously, Keveney asserted that the DOJ attorneys’ jobs were not to provide legal advice or make legal determinations,” the whistleblowers said. “This behavior left the attorneys feeling intimidated and confused about their assigned roles.”Van Erem left the Justice Department in May 2025, “unwilling to be made vulnerable to further participation in politically motivated investigations,” she said in the report.Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the House Judiciary Committee ranking member, said Tuesday he would investigate the report, demanding Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon explain the administration’s approach.“Antisemitism at American universities and medical schools is real,” wrote Raskin. “It needs to be addressed seriously. But your ‘investigation’ into antisemitism was fake, a pre-baked frame-up operation thoroughly political in nature.”The Justice Department, meanwhile, disputed Van Erem’s involvement in the interagency antisemitism task force.“While at the DOJ, Ms. Haley Van Erem did not work on university investigations,” an agency spokesperson told Courthouse News in a statement. “And for all matters, the department stands behind the integrity of these investigations.”A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads