Whistleblower alleges pressure in campus antisemitism probes

A former Justice Department lawyer says Trump administration officials pushed career civil rights attorneys to pursue antisemitism cases against Harvard, Brown and Columbia despite what she described as little or no legal basis, allegations the Justice Department denies.

Haley Van Erem, who worked for nearly a decade in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, filed a whistleblower complaint with the inspectors general for the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and the Office of Special Counsel. The complaint was made public Tuesday by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Van Erem was among several DOJ attorneys involuntarily detailed to HHS to assist a multi-agency task force investigating allegations of antisemitism on college campuses. Her lawyers said senior officials at DOJ and HHS “departed from longstanding investigative practices designed to ensure due process, accuracy and legal compliance.”

“Ms. Van Erem and her colleagues encountered compressed timelines to conduct investigations that compromised the ability to ensure that findings were justified and accurate,” her attorneys with the Government Accountability Project wrote in a letter to Congress accompanying the complaint.

The complaint alleges that political appointees overruled career investigators, pressed for adverse findings and pursued multimillion-dollar settlements with Ivy League universities even when investigators had not substantiated violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination by entities receiving federal funds. Her lawyers wrote that the work was marked by “predetermined outcomes without factual or legal support.”

A Justice Department spokesperson rejected the allegations and disputed Van Erem’s role. “While at the DOJ, Ms. Haley Van Erem did not work on university investigations. And for all matters, the Department stands behind the integrity of these investigations,” the spokesperson told CBS News. The department also told Al Jazeera that Van Erem “did not work on university investigations.”

The task force was launched by the Justice Department under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in February 2025 after President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at combating what the administration called antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.

The complaint says attorneys assigned to investigate Brown did not substantiate Title VI violations and found that the university had responded promptly and effectively to a handful of incidents. The government still pressed for and entered into a settlement, according to the complaint. Brown said its agreement “was not a result of any determination of fault by any government agency, and Brown denied any fault or violation of federal law.” The university said it was never informed of any finding that it violated the law and that a freeze in federal funds had created major challenges for its research mission and finances.

Columbia and Brown both settled with the administration. Al Jazeera reported that Columbia agreed to pay $200 million over three years and Brown agreed to spend $50 million on Rhode Island workforce development. Harvard chose to litigate.

In the Columbia matter, the complaint says staff were pushed to issue findings on an accelerated schedule before factual and legal review was complete, relying in part on unsupported allegations, news reports, litigation filings and activities protected by the First Amendment.

In the Harvard case, Van Erem’s complaint says DOJ lawyers raised serious legal concerns after the government moved to cut off funding and sought a settlement before completing an investigation. A federal judge last week dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit accusing Harvard of violating Title VI. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns found the alleged discrimination cited by the government was “too isolated and episodic” to support federal civil rights violations.

Raskin has asked Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, to turn over communications and records related to the investigations. “Antisemitism at American universities and medical schools is real. It needs to be addressed seriously,” he wrote. “But your ‘investigation’ into antisemitism was fake, a pre-baked frame-up operation thoroughly political in nature.”