President Donald Trump said late Monday that his administration is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University.
"We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University," he said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump's administration in December appealed a judge's ruling holding that it unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in grants awarded to Harvard and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.
Harvard has been a central focus of the administration's broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at U.S. universities, which Trump says are gripped by antisemitic and "radical left" ideologies.
Trump said last year that his administration was close to a deal with Harvard that would include a $500 million payment by the school, after months of negotiations over school policies.
Trump administration officials have accused Harvard and other colleges of promoting so-called "woke" ideology while failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests, filing legal complaints and demanding exorbitant payouts.
The New York Times earlier Monday reported Trump had dropped his administration's demands for a settlement payout of $200 million from Harvard, after protracted talks.
Trump told reporters last September that negotiations were close to reaching a $500 million settlement with Harvard, with part of the deal including the opening of trade schools.
"They wanted to do a convoluted job training concept, but it was turned down in that it was wholly inadequate and would not have been, in our opinion, successful," Trump said in his post late Monday evening.
"It was merely a way of Harvard getting out of a large cash settlement of more than 500 Million Dollars, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed," he added, without specifying what laws Harvard has allegedly broken.
"This should be a Criminal, not Civil, event," he added, without specifying the basis for criminal action or charges he envisaged could be involved.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.
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