A senior official from Donald Trump’s administration told Harvard University that a controversial letter the university received last week had been sent without the proper approval.
The letter, dated April 11, came from the White House’s task force on antisemitism. It included what Harvard officials believed were extremely intrusive demands about how the university should handle its hiring, admissions, and academic programs, according to The New York Times.
Thinking they had no other choice, Harvard announced on April 14 that it would stand up against the administration’s demands.
Not long after Harvard made that announcement, an official from the Trump administration reached out to the university and said the letter had been sent by mistake. The official described it as “unauthorised,” The New York Times reported, citing two people who knew about the situation.
According to three other people who were informed about what happened, the letter was sent by Sean Keveney, who is the acting general counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services. He is also part of the antisemitism task force. While the contents of the letter were real, there seemed to be confusion within the administration about whether the letter was ever supposed to be sent to Harvard. Some people in the White House thought it had been sent too soon, while others believed it was only meant to be shared within the task force. Because of how sensitive the issue is, all the sources asked to remain anonymous.
The timing of the letter made things worse. When it arrived, Harvard had been having what it saw as a positive two-week conversation with the task force. The university still thought there was a chance to avoid a public disagreement with the US President. But because the demands in the letter were so strong, Harvard believed that finding common ground was no longer possible.
As The New York Times wrote, the incident sparked “a tectonic battle between one of the country’s most prestigious universities and a US President.”