Harvard University has recruited a range of lawyers and lawyers with ties to President Donald Trump to continue the Trump administration to freeze billions of federal subsidies and contracts.
The trial brought before the Massachusetts Federal Court presents a long list of lawyers from four different companies, against an equally long list of executive agency officials and appointed by Trump, notably the Secretary of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The trial said that the financing freezing would have an impact on current research that develops “new drugs to combat Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases, engineering nanofibers to protect services and the first stakeholders, support American astronauts in space and design an artificial intelligence system that can be used to diagnose and treat cancer.”
Quinn Emanuel, whose siege is in Los Angeles, has long represented Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has donated $ 250 million to Trump’s countryside and is now the face of the White House Doge office and its efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.
William Burck, lawyer for Quinn Emanuel, on the trial, is a former White House lawyer for Republican President George W. Bush, and was hired by the Trump organization in January to advise the company on ethical issues. Burck also has a record for representation of Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of the White House during the first Trump administration.
Apart from Burck, Robert K. Hur, who is part of the King & Spalding law firm, represents Harvard. He was nominated by Trump in 2017 to be a American lawyer for Maryland and was formerly a clerk of chief judge William Rehnquist.
HUR was also appointed American special advisor in 2023 to investigate the processing by Democratic President Joe Biden of classified documents. However, he refused to continue the charges against Biden.
In the law firm Lehotsky Keller Cohn, several lawyers participating in the Harvard affair are former clerks for the judges of the Supreme Court Conservatives Brett Kavanaugh or Samuel Alito.
In addition, Big Law Firm Ropes & Gray lawyers are listed on the pursuit as Harvard representative.
The Trump administration has targeted not only universities with freezing or cancellation of funding subsidies or government contracts, but also large law firms with executive action. So far, some companies have concluded agreements with the Trump administration, while others have brought an action. None of the Harvard combination law firms are known to have concluded agreements with the Trump administration or the subject of executive action.
In the case of Harvard, the funding suspension intervened after the University rejected Trump administration requests to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limit the admissions of international students deemed “hostile to American values”.
The administration accused the University of having favored “division ideologies” and not to protect Jewish students, which prompted a federal examination led by the health, education and internal security departments.
“No government – whatever the ruling party – should dictate what private universities can teach, that they can admit and hire, and what areas of study and research they can pursue,” wrote Harvard president Alan Mr. Garber, Jewish, in a letter on April 14.
Harrison Fields, the main assistant press director of the White House, replied in a statement on Monday in BI that “the federal aid sauce train to institutions like Harvard, who enrich their bureaucrats roughly overpayed with taxes”, because “taxpayers’ funds are a privilege, and Harvard does not end the fundamental conditions to access this privilege”.
Quinn Emanuel, William Burck, Robert K. Hur and Lehotsky Keller Cohn did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
businessinsider
