The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the Ivy League school of failing to produce documents sought as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether its admissions process discriminates against white applicants.
The lawsuit is the second government action against Harvard in the two weeks since President Trump abruptly reversed his position on a potential deal to end the administration’s pressure campaign on the university.
After a report in The New York Times on Feb. 2 that Mr. Trump had agreed to give up his demand for Harvard to pay a $200 million fine in order to help finalize a deal, the president responded on social media with a series of late-night and early morning posts that called for a criminal investigation of Harvard and announced that he had increased the fine to $1 billion.
Four days later, the Defense Department severed its academic ties with Harvard.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit on Friday stems from an investigation opened in April examining Harvard’s admissions process for its undergraduate, law and medical schools.
Harvard has maintained that the schools have complied with a Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that forced colleges to stop considering race in admissions. A university spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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