House Committee Subpoenas Harvard in Antisemitism Probe

A U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Friday it was subpoenaing Harvard for failing to produce priority documents related to the committee's antisemitism investigation, a move the university said was "unfortunate" and "unwarranted."

Harvard University was asked last month to turn over a raft of material, including documents and other items showing its responses to discrimination, to reports of antisemitic acts, and recruitment and retention of Jewish students.

"Harvard has provided fulsome and good faith responses across 10 submissions totaling more than 3,500 pages that directly address key areas of inquiry put forward by the Committee," a university spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement. Over 2,500 pages of these documents related to the Committee's antisemitism inquiry.

Harvard and other U.S. colleges have simmered with tension over responses to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent offensive in Gaza that aims to wipe out the militant Palestinian group.

Republican Representative Virginia Foxx, who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said that "quality -not quantity - is the Committee’s concern."

Foxx said more than 1,000 of the shared documents were already publicly available, and that Harvard had also failed to make substantial productions on two of four priority requests in its most recent response.

The subpoenas order the Harvard officials to produce a series of documents by 5 pm ET on March 4.

"While a subpoena was unwarranted, Harvard remains committed to cooperating with the Committee and will continue to provide additional materials, while protecting the legitimate privacy, safety and security concerns of our community," the University said.

Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard last month following allegations of plagiarism and a backlash over her congressional testimony on antisemitism.