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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leaders failed to fight anti-Semitism on campuswhich gives the government the possibility of freezing existing subsidies and requesting reimbursement of subsidies already paid.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another missive in a protracted battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and the elite university.
“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply” with federal civil rights law, the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars in public funding awarded to a discriminatory institution.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes after negotiations appeared to have become bogged down in the months-long battle with the Trump administration that tested the limits of the government’s authority over U.S. universities. What started as an investigation into anti-Semitism on campus escalated into an all-out feud as the Trump administration cut more than $2.6 billion in research funding, terminated federal contracts and attempted to block Harvard from welcome international students.
In two lawsuits filed by the university, Harvard said it was unfairly penalized for refusing to adopt the administration’s views. A federal judge agreed in December, cancel funding cuts and calling the anti-Semitism argument a “smokescreen.”
Repeated reports indicate that the two sides are close to reaching an agreement. Last year, the administration and the university were reportedly close to reaching a deal that would have required Harvard to pay $500 million to regain access to federal funding and end investigations. Nearly a year later, Trump increased that figure to $1 billion, saying Harvard was “behaving very badly.”
Since taking office, Trump has targeted elite universities he believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and anti-Semitism, freezing billions in research grants.