Attorneys with the US Department of Justice have reportedly said they felt pressured to accuse the University of California of discriminating against Jewish students and faculty, at the urging of the Trump administration, in what one lawyer described as a “hit job”.
Nine attorneys, some of whom requested anonymity, shared insider accounts with the Los Angeles Times of the federal government’s investigation into California’s research university system. The attorneys said they felt pushed to conclude the UC had violated the law before they had determined the facts. All of the attorneys eventually resigned.
“The political appointees essentially determined the outcome almost before the investigation had even started,” Jen Swedish, a former DoJ lawyer who worked on the case against the University of California, Los Angeles, told the newspaper.
The investigation was centered on allegations of antisemitism that emerged during pro-Palestinian protests at UC campuses, amid a wave of student activism and demonstrations against the war in Gaza that unfolded at universities nationwide.
Since taking office earlier this year, the Trump administration has launched investigations into university campuses across the US as part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, diversity and inclusion initiatives and academic freedom. The federal government has sued multiple campuses and sought to withhold research funding in an effort to bring universities to heel.
Over the summer, the Trump administration demanded UCLA pay a billion dollar fine and ordered it to adopt a number of new policies in order to have more than $500m in grant funding restored.
But last month a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from withholding funding and threatening fines against the UC. The judge ruled that the administration had a “playbook of initiating civil rights investigations” to cut federal funding and force universities “to change their ideological tune”.
The attorneys interviewed as part of the LA Times investigation described rushed investigations in which political aims appeared to be the primary objective. One attorney said that while Jewish people faced discrimination, the inquiry was a “hit job that actually would end up not helping anyone”.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice’s civil rights division said it had found that UCLA allowed antisemitic discrimination to take place on campus during pro-Palestinian protests. The university paid $6.5m to settle a lawsuit by Jewish students and a professor, and said it had “fallen short”.
Former DoJ attorney Ejaz Baluch told the LA Times that UCLA “came the closest to having possibly broken the law in how it responded or treated civil rights complaints from Jewish employees” and there was enough information to warrant a lawsuit. Still, he said: “We believed that such a lawsuit had significant weaknesses.”
Another described the UCLA investigation as “fraudulent and [a] sham”.
Meanwhile, UCLA also faces a lawsuit from pro-Palestinian protesters who say the university was negligent and failed to intervene when a pro-Israel group staged an hours-long violent attack on demonstrators.
In response to a request for comment about allegations that the justice department pressured attorneys, the UC said in a statement that it was focused on “solutions that keep UC strong for Californians and Americans”.
“While we cannot speak to the DOJ’s practices, UC will continue to act in good faith and in the best interests of our students, staff, faculty, and patients.”
The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
