Times Investigation: Ex-Trump DOJ lawyers say 'fraudulent' UC antisemitism probes led them to quit

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Nine former Department of Justice attorneys assigned to investigate alleged antisemitism at the University of California described chaotic and rushed directives from the Trump administration and told The Times they felt pressured to conclude that campuses had violated the civil rights of Jewish students and staff.In interviews over several weeks, the career attorneys — who together served dozens of years — said they were given the instructions at the onset of the investigations.

All nine attorneys resigned during the course of their UC assignments, some concerned that they were being asked to violate ethical standards.“Initially we were told we only had 30 days to come up with a reason to be ready to sue UC,” said Ejaz Baluch, a former senior trial attorney who was assigned to investigate whether Jewish UCLA faculty and staff faced discrimination on campus that the university did not properly address.“It shows just how unserious this exercise was.

It was not about trying to find out what really happened.”In spring 2024, increasingly tumultuous protests over Israel’s war in Gaza racked UCLA.Jewish students and faculty reported “broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus,” a UCLA antisemitism task force found.

A group later sued, charging that UCLA violated their civil rights, and won millions of dollars and concessions in a settlement.UCLA avoided trial, but the suit — along with articles from conservative websites such as the Washington Free Beacon — formed a basis for the UC investigations, the former DOJ lawyers said.

“UCLA came the closest to having possibly broken the law in how it responded or treated civil rights complaints from Jewish employees,” Baluch said.“We did have enough information from our investigation to warrant suing UCLA.” But Baluch said, “We believed that such a lawsuit had significant weakne...