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Foxx threatens to subpoena Columbia University in antisemitism investigation

The Education and Workforce Committee chair gave Columbia a week to fulfill document requests before she considers a subpoena

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Rep. Virginia Foxx, (R-NC)

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, threatened to subpoena Columbia University on Thursday, accusing the school of failing to provide documents the committee requested as part of its antisemitism investigation.

“In many cases, these items were requested months ago. Columbia’s continued failure to produce these priority items is unacceptable, and if this is not promptly rectified, the Committee is prepared to compel their production,” Foxx wrote in a letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik and board of trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald.

Foxx said that if the school does not fulfill her requests by noon on Aug. 8 — one week from Thursday — the committee “is prepared to issue subpoenas.”

A Columbia spokesperson told JI that the school has “received the Chairwoman’s letter and we are reviewing it. We are committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

The letter outlines a series of document requests and warnings provided to Columbia, which Foxx said the school has repeatedly failed to properly fulfill.

Foxx said the school has only provided text messages from two of the eight administrators and two of the 10 trustees the committee had designated as priorities, and that the provided messages did not cover the requested time period. She said Columbia has also refused to confirm whether it has collected messages from the other individuals.

She said Columbia has also failed to produce records from board of trustees meetings and a list of disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism, instead largely providing information that is already public, which Foxx described as of “limited value.”

Columbia would be the second school after Harvard University to receive a subpoena from the committee. Foxx said that Harvard had failed to properly fulfill that subpoena, but no further public action has been taken in response to that alleged obstruction.

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