A whistleblower alleges that United States President Donald Trump’s administration’s findings that three of the country’s most prestigious academic institutions violated civil rights law by tolerating anti-Semitism were “predetermined” as part of a “politically mandated effort” that allegedly discarded standard investigative procedures.
The administration has now pushed back, disputing the whistleblower’s involvement in the investigations.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice (DOJ) has told Al Jazeera that former DOJ lawyer Haley Van Erem, whose lawyers submitted the complaint, “did not work on university investigations” during her tenure at the department.
Van Erem filed the complaint with the inspectors general at the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and the Office of Special Counsel. The civil rights lawyer spent nearly a decade working in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division before being involuntarily assigned to help with the task force last year, according to the disclosure. She ended up vacating her role at the DOJ 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”, according to the complaint, which also accuses the task force of targeting Muslim professors.
The complaint, obtained and reported on by The Associated Press news agency, also alleges that Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism pushed for...
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