New York Times: Trump administration sent letter of demands to Harvard University in error

By Michelle Watson and Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — Harvard University has been in an escalating battle with the Trump administration heightened last week by a letter it received from the administration that outlined a slew of demands tied to federal funding – like reforming its curriculum and admissions programs, discontinuing DEI practices and additional policy demands.

But the letter should not have been sent and was “unauthorized,” The New York Times reported, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Harvard, which has emerged as a symbol of the Trump resistance, strongly rejected the demands in the April 11 letter, with President Alan M. Garber saying in a statement that the “University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

There were differing accounts inside the Trump administration on how the letter had been mishandled, with some at the White House believing it had been sent prematurely and others thinking it wasn’t meant to be sent at all, the Times reported.

A White House official did not comment to CNN on whether the letter was sent in error but confirmed its authenticity on Saturday, telling CNN that the White House “stands by the letter.”

Meanwhile, Harvard told CNN it didn’t question the letter’s authenticity and noted that the Trump administration has already frozen billions in federal funding to the prestigious university, among other actions.

“Even assuming the Administration now wishes to take back its litany of breathtakingly intrusive demands, it appears to have doubled down on those demands through its deeds in recent days. Actions speak louder than words,” a statement from a Harvard spokesperson reads in part.

The spokesperson noted the letter “was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the e-mail inbox of a senior federal official, and was sent on April 11 as promised.”

The letter marked the latest in several battles across the country between prestigious universities and the Trump administration. The White House has also demanded other elite US colleges make key policy changes as it threatened federal funds critical to research in medicine and other scientific fields.

Last month, apparently conceding to administration demands, Columbia University made policy changes in a dispute over federal funding, including restrictions on demonstrations, new disciplinary procedures and immediately reviewing its Middle East curriculum, on the heels President Donald Trump’s revocation of $400 million in federal funding over campus protests.

Here’s how we got here

Harvard emerged as the first elite US university to publicly rebuke the White House’s demands, which Trump officials have said aim to combat antisemitism following contentious campus protests in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Among the demands in the letter were the banning of masks at campus protests, reforms to merit-based hiring and admissions, and reducing the power held by faculty and administrators “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

The university president has said the demands go beyond the power of the federal government, and the majority “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard” rather than combating antisemitism.

In the days that followed, the administration threatened Harvard University’s funding from multiple angles.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced it would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value after Harvard said it would not follow policy demands from the administration.

Then on Wednesday, CNN reported that the Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of the University, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That same day, the administration also threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students.

The April 11 letter from the federal task force outlined policy demands “as the basis for an agreement in principle that will maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.”

The letter was signed by Josh Gruenbaum, a top official at the General Services Administration; Thomas Wheeler, the acting general counsel for the Department of Education; and Sean Keveney, acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services.

After Harvard received the letter and rejected its demands, Gruenbaum called a Harvard lawyer initially saying that the letter wasn’t authorized to be sent, according to two people with knowledge of the calls, the New York Times reports.

Gruenbaum then changed his story, the Times reported, saying that the letter was always going to be sent, but not on Friday as parties from both sides were still in “constructive” talks.

The statement from the Harvard spokesperson Saturday said the letter “was sent on April 11 as promised.”

“Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government—even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach—do not question its authenticity or seriousness,” the statement continued.

“Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. It remains unclear to us exactly what, among the government’s recent words and deeds, were mistakes or what the government actually meant to do and say,” the statement added. “But even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences on students, patients, employees, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”

The White House says is still leaving the door open to negotiation with the university.

“The White House remains open to dialogue, but serious changes are needed at Harvard. The letter underscores President Trump’s commitment to these reforms,” the White House official told CNN Saturday.

“Instead of grandstanding, Harvard should focus on rebuilding confidence among all students, particularly Jewish students, by prioritizing their safety, holding radical activists accountable, and ending discrimination on campus,” the official said.

A spokesperson released a statement on behalf of the task force Gruenbaum, Keveney and Wheeler are part of in response to CNN’s request for comment Saturday, saying, “the entire Trump administration, is in lockstep on ensuring that entities who receive taxpayer dollars are following all civil rights laws.”

The spokesperson would not confirm whether the letter was sent in error.

CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Jeff Winter and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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