Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said Tuesday that Harvard University has failed to comply with her unprecedented subpoena for documents on campus antisemitism.
Foxx said in a statement that her committee is now “weighing an appropriate response to Harvard’s malfeasance.”
“Harvard has absolutely failed to comply in good faith with the Committee’s subpoena for information about antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx said.
Harvard turned over another trove of documents about campus antisemitism to Congress on Monday evening. The Ivy League school had faced a 5 pm ET deadline to respond to the Education Committee’s subpoena – the first to a university since the committee was founded in March 1867.
Foxx argued that heavy redactions by Harvard made several documents “useless,” while many others were duplicates of documents previously submitted.
“I don’t know if its arrogance, ineptness, or indifference that’s guiding Harvard. Regardless, its actions to date are shameful,” Foxx said.
A Harvard spokesperson denied to CNN that the university double counted previously submitted documents, standing by the school’s estimate of nearly 4,900 pages submitted to the committee since January.
Harvard had faced a Monday deadline to respond to the subpoena, which was issued on February 16 to three different Harvard officials: Alan Garber, Harvard’s interim president; Penny Pritzker, the billionaire leader of the Harvard Corporation, the school’s governing board; and N.P. Narvekar, the CEO of the Harvard Management Company.
The Education Committee did not detail specifically which steps lawmakers are now considering to enforce its subpoena.
“Never before has the Committee subpoenaed a university, and Chairwoman Foxx does not take that lightly,” a committee spokesperson told CNN. “The Committee is taking the time that this investigation deserves to follow the facts and decide next steps, hold Harvard accountable, and ultimately ensure Jewish students are afforded a safe learning environment on campus.”
In a statement Tuesday, US Rep. Elise Stefanik — a New York Republican — heavily criticized Harvard.
“This is more proof that Harvard and the Harvard Corporation Board Members know that they are in deep, deep legal trouble for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus and their subsequent cover up,” Stefanik said. “The absolute egregious and entitled malfeasance of Harvard in failing to fully comply with the subpoena will not be tolerated.”
As CNN has previously reported, criminal contempt is one of three options Congress can pursue to enforce its subpoenas.