DOJ whistleblower complaint alleged antisemitism task force rigged Harvard, Columbia and Brown Title VI probes to extract settlements

On August 18, 2026, Haley Van Erem, a Justice Department Civil Rights Division attorney of nearly a decade, filed a whistleblower complaint with the inspectors general of the Justice and Health and Human Services departments and the Office of Special Counsel, alleging that the administration's antisemitism task force manufactured predetermined outcomes in its Title VI investigations of Harvard, Columbia and Brown universities. Van Erem was involuntarily assigned from DOJ's Civil Rights Division to HHS to work on the task force, which the Justice Department launched in February 2025 under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and staffed with DOJ and HHS lawyers to investigate antisemitism complaints that originated from a single New York Post story about a medical-school graduation.

The complaint says investigators found no Title VI violation at Brown, but that task force leadership "refused to permit a notice of no violation and instead sought some form of settlement or resolution" despite acknowledging no legal basis existed. At Columbia, it says investigators found evidence of discrimination but reached that finding on an accelerated timetable relying on allegations that were unsupported, drawn from news reports or litigation filings, or that implicated protected First Amendment activity. Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding were suspended before either investigation concluded, and then-HHS acting general counsel Sean Keveney said he believed Harvard would settle because the university was "over a barrel," according to the complaint. Columbia ultimately agreed to pay $200 million and Brown $50 million, both without admitting wrongdoing; Harvard fought its case, and a federal judge dismissed the related DOJ lawsuit last week, ruling the cited incidents were too "isolated and episodic" to support a Title VI claim.

Van Erem left the Justice Department in May 2025, saying she was unwilling to continue "participation in politically motivated investigations unsupported by facts and contrary to law." Her complaint also accuses the task force of targeting Muslim professors. A Justice Department spokesperson told reporters the department "stands behind the integrity" of the investigations; the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Updates

2026-08-18 — Rep. Jamie Raskin demanded a transcribed interview and records from DOJ [4]

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon citing Van Erem's complaint, requesting Dhillon appear for a transcribed interview and that DOJ produce six categories of records — including communications with HHS officials Sean Keveney and Daniel Shieh, case assessments on the Harvard, Brown, Cornell and Columbia investigations, and records on the task force's interviews of Muslim faculty — by September 1, 2026.