According to Van Erem’s complaint, the DOJ, along with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “departed from longstanding investigative practices designed to ensure due process, accuracy and legal compliance.”
“For at least some of the investigations, there was little to no factual predicate justifying opening them,” the whistleblower document states, noting that, when she and other DOJ employees raised questions, they were “sometimes admonished and their concerns were often disregarded.”
Some of the investigations into universities were “predetermined before the relevant evidence was collected and evaluated,” the complaint adds. For example, an investigation into Brown University yielded no conclusion that a Title VI violation had even happened. Yet the DOJ still successfully compelled the university to enter a settlement with the government, which included the institution changing its policies to reflect the Trump administration’s views on gender.
The investigations by the DOJ focused on three universities: Brown, Columbia, and Harvard. Columbia also entered into a settlement with the administration, while Harvard has so far fought against the investigations, challenging their legality in the courts.
The administration has also expanded its investigations to potentially examine supposed acts of antisemitism elsewhere, sending warning letters to 60 schools across the U.S. last year. Harvard’s legal successes, coupled with Van Erem’s complaint, could provide those institutions sufficient reason to challenge future inquiries by the administration.
Some of the investigations also appeared to target Muslim academics without reason. In April 2025, Van Erem’s disclosure noted, there was a plan by the DOJ to “systematically interview Middle East studies professors, particularly Muslim faculty” to see if they would say anything that could be called antisemitic. This included the targeting of one Muslim professor, who was singled out for questioning despite no allegations of antisemitic behavior being made against them.
I'm shocked, I say! Shocked!