Harvard Law Review retaliated against student who allegedly exposed schools race-based hiring: report

The Harvard University student who exposed that the university’s vaunted law journal was allegedly hiring based on race was retaliated against for sparking a federal investigation, according to a report.Daniel Wasserman was slapped with a “formal reprimand” in his law review file — and asked to destroy the incriminating Harvard Law Review documents he had shared with the media, the Washington Free Beacon reported.The student-run Law Review made a “[r]equest that any parties with whom you have shared Confidential Materials … delete or return them to The Review,” an email in May obtained by the outlet states.Two days later, Wasserman was told he was being given a formal reprimand — despite federal law protections for whistleblowers.“This Formal Reprimand informs you that your actions violate Law Review policies and do not reflect our community expectations,” the journal’s disciplinary committee wrote on May 22.“Continued violations may give rise to additional disciplinary proceedings.”The reprimand was retracted five days later after the Justice Department stepped in and accused the law review of witness intimidation.The Law Review claimed it had not known Wasserman was working with the government — though a May 12 letter from the government named him, then serving as an editor, as a “cooperating witness” in its investigation.The journal then claimed it had only instructed Wasserman to destroy copies of the files he allegedly disseminated, not the originals on the school servers, the emails state.Wasserman had downloaded and shared thousands of documents with the Free Beacon that allegedly exposed how the revered Law Review discriminated against white men, instead prioritizing race-based quotas over academic merit, when it came to hiring editors and publishing articles.In a 2024 memo reviewed by the Free Beacon, Law Review editors appeared to favor a “woman of color” author when it came to considering her story for publication, ...