President Trump said late Monday his administration is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University in an apparent response to a New York Times report that said the school had won some concessions in ongoing negotiations to settle its dispute with the government.
“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He quoted the Times as saying, “Some connected to the University, however, think Harvard has no option but to eventually cut a deal. The Administration has repeatedly attempted to cut off research grants, which would be an untenable crises. Like many major research universities, Harvard relies on federal funding for its financial model.”
The Times earlier on Monday reported Mr. Trump had dropped his administration’s demands for a settlement payout of $200 million from Harvard, after protracted talks.
Citing “Harvard and Trump officials briefed on the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations,” the Times said “Trump administration officials have indicated in recent days that the president no longer expects such a payment.”
Mr. Trump told reporters last September that negotiators were close to reaching a $500 million settlement with Harvard, with part of the deal including a plan to open new trade schools.
“They wanted to do a convoluted job training concept, but it was turned down in that it was wholly inadequate and would not have been, in our opinion, successful,” Mr. Trump said in his Monday post.
“It was merely a way of Harvard getting out of a large cash settlement of more than 500 Million Dollars, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed,” he added, without specifying what laws Harvard had allegedly broken.
Administration officials have accused Harvard and other colleges of promoting so-called “woke” ideology while failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests and filed a series of legal complaints along with demands for large payouts.
A federal judge ruled in September that the Trump administration violated Harvard University’s First Amendment rights and federal law when it froze nearly $2 billion in federal grants due to the antisemitism allegations.
In her ruling in September, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said the funding freeze was part of a “government-initiated onslaught” against the school that was “much more about promoting a governmental orthodoxy in violation of the First Amendment than about anything else, including fighting antisemitism.”
Harvard also separately sued the federal government last year after Mr. Trump barred most international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard. Burroughs later ruled for Harvard, blocking that policy. The Justice Department said it will appeal.
Critics have called it a pressure campaign by the administration on liberal universities. CBS News has reached out to Harvard University for comment.
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