Catégorie oBox : OBOXMA

Harvard has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, days after the federal government announced the freezing of $2.2 billion in grants intended for it.

NEW: Harvard University has sued the Trump administration, claiming its freezing of $2.2 billion in grants and demands for greater control over the university violated the First Amendment and other federal laws and regulations. nbcnews.to/3S42NbK

— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) 2025-04-21T23:21:48.782Z

The legal action comes after the Trump administration decided to freeze federal funding, in response to the university’s refusal to submit to a series of requirements. According to Harvard, these measures, presented as reforms against anti-Semitism on campus, would in reality constitute a disguised abuse of power.

In its complaint, Harvard accuses the Trump administration of masking, under the guise of concerns about anti-Semitism, a desire to increase its grip on the university, thus going beyond the limits of its governmental authority over a private institution.

It further asserts that the government fails to make a logical connection between these concerns and the freeze on research projects.

It accuses the government of seriously undermining research in crucial fields such as medicine, science and technology, areas the university considers essential to saving lives, ensuring national security and preserving U.S. global leadership.

As a reminder, the Trump administration’s demands on the university included the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, the introduction of merit-based selection only, restrictions on international students, the banning of pro-Palestinian groups, increased collaboration with immigration authorities, as well as a ban on the wearing of masks during campus protests.

Harvard then announced its refusal to comply with this series of demands formulated by the Trump administration. In response, Donald Trump immediately retaliated by freezing over $2 billion in federal funding and contracts earmarked for the university, also threatening to strip it of its tax-exempt status.

According to a complaint filed by the organization Whistleblower Aid, Daniel Berulis, a former computer specialist at the US government agency National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), recently raised the alarm about a potential serious security breach involving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and his team.

EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that … information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

— NPR (@npr.org) 2025-04-15T10:10:22.927Z

Berulis claims that he observed disturbing things in March 2025, when members of the DOGE team obtained extended access to the NLRB’s internal systems, allowing them to view, copy, and modify sensitive data.

According to the whistleblower, the data in question included files related to ongoing union cases, confidential testimonies, personal information about employees, and sensitive information about business owners.

According to the computer specialist, he immediately observed unusual activity on the NLRB’s computer network, including a significant increase in outgoing data volume, estimated by him to be around 10 gigabytes.

At the same time, Berulis also noticed that the logging protocols, essential for monitoring user activity, had been modified. According to him, these alterations significantly complicated the traceability of operations performed on the system.

The computer specialist reports that shortly after the DOGE team accessed the systems, suspicious login attempts from a Russian IP address were observed.

One of them used a recently created account by the DOGE, with a correct username and password, which suggests potential compromise. Although these connections were blocked thanks to the geographical restrictions in place, they greatly concerned the whistleblower.

The whistleblower stated in an interview with CNN that he had received a threatening note accompanied by drone photos showing him at home, shortly after trying to alert the authorities.

He adds that his superiors ordered him to abandon his investigation and not transmit his concerns to national security agencies, while the NLRB rejects all of his accusations.