The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has rejected accusations from a whistleblower that the Trump administration's rulings against three of America's most prestigious universities regarding antisemitism-related civil rights violations were 'preordained' in a 'politically motivated' effort that bypassed standard investigative procedures.
A DOJ spokesperson said former attorney Haley Van Erem, whose lawyers filed the complaint, 'did not participate in the university investigations' during her tenure at the department. However, Van Erem has filed complaints with DOJ inspectors, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Special Counsel.
According to the complaint, obtained and published by the Associated Press, Van Erem worked for nearly a decade in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division before being transferred to the antisemitism task force last year. She left the DOJ in May 2025 because she 'did not want to continue participating in investigations that were politically motivated, not supported by facts, and contrary to law.' The complaint also alleges the task force targeted Muslim professors.
Van Erem's lawyers allege in the filing that the task force, created by the DOJ under a Trump executive order in February 2025 under Attorney General Pam Bondi, pressured Ivy League schools into signing multi-million-dollar settlement agreements even though the investigations did not identify any legal violations by them. The complaint asserts that political appointees overruled career investigators and targeted professors based on religion and ethnicity.
These investigations followed a wave of protests against Israel's military campaign in Gaza that erupted on U.S. campuses, with allegations of 'antisemitic harassment' on campus. According to the complaint, the real purpose was to 'extract money' from schools through settlement demands and budget freezes under the guise of combating antisemitism.
A DOJ spokesperson stated they 'stand behind the integrity of these investigations.' Meanwhile, Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has launched an inquiry into allegations that Trump administration political appointees 'blatantly manipulated' antisemitism investigations to punish certain universities and force settlement agreements without sufficient evidence of Title VI violations.
In a statement, Raskin called the investigations 'fake, a preordained political campaign.' He also sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, questioning the investigative methods.
Brown University and Columbia University have reached settlements with the administration. Columbia agreed to pay $200 million over three years, while Brown committed $50 million for workforce development in Rhode Island, though the task force did not record any formal admission of wrongdoing by the schools.
Earlier, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reverse its cancellation of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University, stating that the government had 'used antisemitism as a pretext for an ideologically motivated attack on leading universities.' Another judge last week also dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit accusing Harvard of turning a blind eye to harassment of Jewish students.
