E.E.O.C. Investigating Discrimination Claim at The New York Times

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is poised to file a civil rights lawsuit against The New York Times, centered on the allegations of a white male employee who did not get a sought-after promotion and argued it was because of his race and gender, two people familiar with the matter said.

The lawsuit, which could be filed as early as this week, would mark a rapid escalation of an investigation that had been underway for months, said one of the people, who had been briefed on the investigation but was not able to discuss it publicly.

The E.E.O.C. is bound by strict laws against disclosing details of civil rights complaints and investigations. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The Times, called the allegations “politically motivated.”

It was not clear if the lawsuit would be brought on behalf of the original complainant or if the E.E.O.C. would bring the case as a broader civil rights claim, arguing that The Times’s employment practices, including diversity initiatives, amounted to unlawful discrimination against white men.

A reverse-discrimination lawsuit would be the latest example of the agency’s new approach under its Republican chair, Andrea Lucas, who has directed the E.E.O.C. staff to pursue cases aligned with Trump administration’s political priorities, including diversity programs. That includes a broad attack on companies and institutions for what they describe as discrimination against white men.

President Trump has publicly blasted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as “radical” and “wasteful.” He issued a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating D.E.I. efforts across the federal government soon after resuming office, including ordering that government employees overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts be placed on leave.

Ms. Lucas has said her priorities include prosecuting discrimination based on religion and national origin and rooting out D.E.I. initiatives.

The commission, a centerpiece of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws in the workplace. Ms. Lucas has argued publicly that D.E.I. initiatives violate those laws. In 2024, she opened an investigation into Nike over its diversity efforts, a matter that became public earlier this year after the E.E.O.C. filed a motion in federal court to enforce a subpoena.

Employees at the E.E.O.C. have said they feel pressure to bring cases favored by the Trump administration, even when the legal basis appears to be flimsy, The Times reported last week.

A spokesman for the E.E.O.C. did not respond to a detailed request for comment.

“The New York Times categorically rejects the meritless and politically motivated allegations that the Trump administration’s E.E.O.C. is pursuing against us,” Ms. Rhoades Ha said. “Our employment practices are, and have always been, lawful, merit-based, and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world.”

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Unlike the Nike investigation, which did not have an original complainant — Ms. Lucas pursued it herself, court filings show — the case against The Times has its roots in an employee complaint. The complaint came months before Ms. Lucas put out a social media post encouraging white men to come forward with allegations of discrimination.

The Times employee originally filed the complaint in July 2025, with the E.E.O.C. office in New York, the person familiar with the case said. In September, The Times learned that the case had been transferred to an investigator in Alabama, the person said.

For months, the E.E.O.C. and The Times went back and forth with requests for information, as the agency conducted its investigation. The agency and The Times were recently engaged briefly in what is known as “conciliation,” a process of voluntary, brokered mediation that typically follows an agency determination that there is “reasonable cause” to believe discrimination occurred.

If conciliation fails, the agency then decides whether to sue the employer in federal court.

The Times employee had unsuccessfully sought a deputy editor position.

The E.E.O.C.’s initial investigation was a wide-ranging look at the paper’s hiring and promotion practices. But in recent weeks, the paper was told that the inquiry had been whittled down to one central issue: whether the employee did not get the deputy editor job because he was a white man.

Conversations were ongoing when, suddenly, on April 21, the E.E.O.C. told The Times that the case had been referred to the agency’s legal unit for review, to determine whether it would bring a civil action in court, the person said.

“Throughout this process, the E.E.O.C. deviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways, blatantly weaponizing a traditionally independent government body to serve a predetermined narrative,” Ms. Rhoades Ha said. “If this lawsuit moves forward, we will defend ourselves and our values vigorously as there is not a single piece of evidence to support any claim of discrimination.”

Mr. Trump has long attacked the news media as biased and corrupt. But in his second term, he has repeatedly leveraged the regulatory tools of the federal government to badger, and in some cases, extract millions of dollars in payments from his perceived foes in the press.

The Hollywood studio Paramount paid $16 million and promised to reform its diversity hiring practices last year, several weeks before the administration signed off on its mega merger with Skydance. Last week, federal regulators took the extraordinary step of ordering a review of station licenses owned by ABC, saying that their action was prompted by an investigation into the network’s diversity and inclusion policies.

Michael M. Grynbaum contributed reporting.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien covers labor and the work force for The Times.

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