The Justice Department could launch legal proceedings against Harvard over its civil rights violations, a federal official told president Alan Garber on Wednesday.

The Trump administration said Harvard University is still refusing to obey federal civil rights law, increasing pressure over the school’s alleged failure to address antisemitic harassment on campus since Israel’s response to the 2023 attack by Hamas prompted pro-Palestine student protests.

In late June, the Trump administration said an investigation had concluded Harvard violated federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment of Jewish and Israeli students. Critics, rights experts and some faculty said such probes are a pretext to assert federal control over schools and threaten academic freedom and free speech.