Summary

The White House claimed it had not intended to send its revised, and more aggressive, set of demands to Harvard on April 11, according to a report by the New York Times published Friday evening.

Trump administration officials claimed that the demands, which were seen as excessive and illegal to Harvard’s administrators, should not have been sent and were “unauthorized.”

The Friday letter was supposed to clarify the initial list, but instead presented a much more aggressive array of demands that included derecognizing pro-Palestine groups, submitting to three years of federal audits, and agreeing to report international students who broke University conduct policies to federal agencies.

“Even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences.”