Harvard University has come under fire amid revelations it sought to thwart The Post’s investigation of Claudine Gay’s alleged plagiarism and cleared her of such accusations before even conducting an investigation.
Rep. Jim Banks, (R-Ind.) who sits on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which has been scrutinizing the Ivy League school, called the aggressive attempt to suppress The Post’s investigation “shameful.”
“Harvard has been terrified of losing donations and taxpayer funding since they were exposed for harboring antisemitism,” he told The Post.
“Claudine Gay claimed to support free speech and truthful inquiry in her congressional testimony, but now the university is threatening journalists and lying to protect its reputation and over $50 billion endowment.”
A law firm representing the elite university sent The Post a threatening legal letter in late October, dubbing accusations that Gay plagiarized from other academics “demonstrably false” and insisting that her work was “cited and properly credited.”
It threatened to sue The Post for “immense” damages and insisted that The Post’s reporting “must not be published.”
By Dec. 12, Harvard had conceded that Gay had been investigated by the university’s top governing body and was issuing corrections to two academic journals, to acknowledge where her work had really come from.
The firestorm over Gay’s alleged plagiarism exploded shortly after her testy hearing before the House Education Committee earlier this month in which she was evasive about whether antisemitic chants violated the campus’ code of conduct.
“@Harvard misled and threatened the @nypost with litigation to get it to kill an article which alleged that President Gay had committed plagiarism. This reflects very poorly on the Corporation board, and anyone else in Harvard’s administration who was behind this effort,” Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum, hedge fund billionaire, and critic of Gay, wrote on X.
“This is yet another Hunter-Biden-laptop-like suppression of the NY Post, and further evidence of Harvard’s rejection of speech that does not fit the favored and dominant narrative.”
Harvard tapped Clare Locke, a law firm that has previously done work for the Sackler family, Russian oligarchs and Matt Lauer, to send over the fiery letter that dangled legal action after The Post requested comment in October on allegations that Gay had plagiarized parts of three published works.
“Harvard hired Thomas Clare, a lawyer whose signature is attacking journalists with frivolous libel bluster on behalf of deep pocketed clients. This is looking worse for Harvard & Gay,” ProPublica senior editor Josh Eisinger wrote on X.
“[The Post’s] long story has more damning details that seem to me to take the scandal into the realm of Rathergate and beyond into satire. Rather stood behind his fraudulent story for 12 days before higher authorities at CBS News compelled him to stand down (with his fingers crossed behind his back),” conservative author Scott Johnson wrote in the Powerline blog.
National Review’s George Leef ripped Harvard’s use of Clare Locke, as a “nasty effort at suppressing the investigation into her plagiarism.”
“It’s easy to see where students get the idea that the way to deal with people and ideas you don’t like is to resort to threats and ‘cancellation,'” he said.
Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, who helped expose the alleged plagiarism, called Harvard’s suppression effort “corruption.”
“Between this and the Hunter laptop story before the election, are you starting to understand why ‘smart and important’ people feel such a need to denigrate The Post and elevate The Times?” X user Marty Guthrie wrote.
The Post sought comment from Harvard on Oct. 24 and flagged 27 possible instances of Gay committing plagiarism between 1993 and 2017.
Initially, Jonathan Swain, Harvard’s senior director of communications and a long-time Democratic aide, asked for additional time. Days later, however, Clare Locke sent the threatening letter to The Post.
Shortly thereafter, Gay asked for an investigation and the school consulted outside experts to comb through her work.
Harvard later sent a follow-up on Nov. 7, while the university’s outside investigation was underway, against reiterating that the accusations were “false.”
The letter did not divulge the existence of the probe.
Five days after Gay’s controversial testimony before the Education Committee, Rufo unveiled the dossier of plagiarism accusations revolving around Gay. He did so while The Post was still investigating the matter.
Then the Washington Free Beacon published a story, highlighting additional incidents of possible plagiarism.
“I stand by the integrity of my scholarship. Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards,” Gay told The Boston Globe in response.
Gay survived a chorus of calls for her resignation over her testimony to Congress. Former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, who testified alongside Gay, ultimately resigned following similar outrage over her testimony.
The Education Committee has since opened an investigation into antisemitism on college campuses.
The Post contacted Harvard for comment Sunday.
Gay became Harvard’s 30th president back in July.