
Democrats Plan to Probe Harvard if It Complies With Trump
The letter that detail the threat of investigation was sent Aug. 1.
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Nine Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate who are also Harvard University graduates said Friday that they will investigate the Ivy League university if it agrees to a settlement with the Trump administration, Axios first reported.
The letter—led by Rep. Sam Liccardo and Sen. Adam Schiff, Democrats from California, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland—was sent just days after The New York Times reported Harvard is willing to pay up to $500 million to end its months-long dispute with the Trump administration over the way it handled alleged incidents of campus antisemitism and other grievances.
“We are alarmed that Harvard would contemplate a settlement of this magnitude under apparent political pressure,” the Democrats wrote in the letter first obtained by Axios. “Any such agreement may warrant rigorous Congressional oversight and inquiry.”
The Democratic lawmakers added that this “rigorous” examination would be necessary, as the Trump administration has repeatedly made “unjustified political threats” and interfered with the governance of independent institutions.
To acquiesce would make Harvard “complicit in the erosion of fundamental democratic principles,” the letter stated.
The lawmakers requested a response from Harvard by Aug. 13 about the university officials’ meetings with Trump officials and other details.
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