Whistleblower says Trump task force rushed Ivy League antisemitism deals

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 19, 2026 06:28 IST

A former US Justice Department lawyer has alleged in a whistleblower complaint that a Trump administration task force on antisemitism pushed Ivy League universities towards settlements even when investigations were rushed, incomplete, or did not establish legal violations. The complaint, obtained by The Associated Press, says the investigations were used to pressure the institutions into deals for political purposes.

The disclosure says outcomes were "predetermined, without regard to the evidence" in a "politically mandated effort" to extract money from universities through settlement demands and funding freezes under the pretext of tackling antisemitism. Lawyers for the former attorney said the task force's work was marked by "extraordinary procedural irregularities, predetermined outcomes without factual or legal support" and disregard for the law and the Constitution.

The task force was launched by the Justice Department under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in February 2025, amid wider scrutiny of antisemitism allegations on US campuses during protests over Israel's war in Gaza. President Donald Trump had said he wanted to root out antisemitism that he claimed had gone unchecked during the Biden administration, while critics said the response was heavy-handed, infringed on free speech and forced concessions from public institutions.

Lawyers for the former attorney, identified as Haley Van Erem, filed the disclosure with the inspectors general of the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Office of Special Counsel. The complaint says Van Erem spent nearly a decade in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division before being involuntarily assigned to HHS to work on Title VI investigations into universities.

According to the complaint, HHS assignees were first told to examine allegations of antisemitism at medical school commencement ceremonies after being alerted to a New York Post report on alleged antisemitic conduct at graduation events. The inquiries were later widened to cover entire institutions in the cases of Columbia and Brown. Van Erem left the Justice Department in May 2025 because she was "unwilling to be made vulnerable to further participation in politically motivated investigations unsupported by facts and contrary to law", the complaint says. It also alleges that officials targeted some Middle East Studies faculty for the content of their work and other professors for their Muslim faith.

Kiersten Pels, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the department "stands behind the integrity" of its investigations. A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, separately wrote to Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general heading the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Raskin said antisemitism at colleges and medical schools was a real problem that needed investigation. "But," he wrote, "your 'investigation' into antisemitism was fake, a pre-baked frame-up operation thoroughly political in nature." He also wrote that "the whole project was designed to harass professors and administrators at major universities, to curtail their freedom of speech and academic freedom, and to strip targeted institutions of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that they had already been awarded on the merits of their applications."

The complaint focuses mainly on investigations into Brown, Harvard and Columbia. In Brown's case, it says investigators did not find evidence to support a Title VI violation, but that "leadership refused to permit a notice of no violation and instead sought some form of settlement or resolution despite acknowledging the absence of a legal basis for doing so." In Columbia's case, the complaint says investigators did find evidence of discrimination, but that the inquiry moved on an accelerated timetable before "adequate factual development and legal review were completed" and relied on allegations that were unsupported, based on news reports or litigation filings, or involved protected First Amendment activity.

Columbia later agreed to pay the government USD 200 million under an agreement that restored its access to federal funding. Brown separately agreed to pay USD 50 million to Rhode Island workforce development organisations to end three federal investigations involving allegations of antisemitism and racial bias in admissions, with no findings of wrongdoing.

In the Harvard investigation, the complaint says Trump administration officials discussed "extraordinary funding freezes and sweeping proposed settlement terms" before any completed investigation could establish Title VI violations. It alleges that Sean Keveney, then HHS acting general counsel, said he believed Harvard would settle because they were "over a barrel". A federal judge last year ordered the administration to reverse cuts of more than USD 2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard, saying the government had "used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country's premier universities". In a separate case last week, another judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit accusing Harvard of ignoring harassment of Jewish students.

The whistleblower complaint has added to the debate over how the Trump administration handled antisemitism investigations at major universities, with allegations that probes into Brown, Columbia and Harvard were driven by political goals even as the administration defended the integrity of its actions.

With PTI Inputs

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