A Defense Department official urged the Trump administration not to terminate a $12 million biological threat research grant at Harvard University, citing national security risks. According to Harvard’s court filing, the official wrote, “Inadequate knowledge of the biological threat landscape poses grave and immediate harm to national security.” Despite this, the Defense Department told Harvard it was ending the grant in mid-May.
Harvard argues that the Trump administration’s decision to freeze over $2 billion in federal funds for research programs is unlawful. The university’s attorneys wrote, “Despite the clear public and national benefit, the contract was canceled… Nothing in the Government’s administrative record indicates that the Secretary of Defense yielded to the contracting official’s plea.”
Harvard’s vice provost for research, John Shaw, stated that the grant cuts would irreversibly disrupt several research projects, including scientific labs and studies on pediatric HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and antibiotic-resistant infections.
The university’s filing highlights the potential consequences of terminating the grants, including idle equipment, spoiled samples, and euthanized live specimens. Shaw wrote, “Many labs rely on continuous processes, so interruptions would render years of work useless.” Harvard claims that the Trump administration’s actions are motivated by a desire to punish the university for exercising its First Amendment rights.
The case is ongoing, with oral arguments scheduled for July 21. Harvard’s lawyers argue that the administration’s decision to terminate funding was driven by the White House’s demands, rather than any evidence of wrongdoing by the university.
They wrote, “The Government rushed to terminate Harvard’s funding not because it concluded after careful assessment that federal financial support for certain programs at certain of Harvard’s 12 different schools suborned antisemitism, but because the White House demanded across-the-board terminations of funding to Harvard University-wide solely to inflict maximum punishment upon Harvard.”
What remains to be seen is the whether the courts would prevail on Donald Trump to restore the funding or not.