May 02, 2025

Wyden Demands Investigation into Trump Administration’s Potential Criminal Activity Against Harvard University

Senator joins Schumer, Warren and Markey to sound the alarm about abuses that could also lead to targeting other schools, hospitals, churches and more

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today demanded an investigation into the Trump Administration for potential criminal activity related to its threat to weaponize the IRS to revoke the non-profit status of Harvard University. 

Wyden, along with Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), called on Acting Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Heather Hill to conduct an immediate investigation into whether Trump is targeting Harvard’s non-profit status  for blatantly political purposes after Trump posted: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax-Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’”

In a letter to Hill, the senators wrote, “It is both illegal and unconstitutional for the IRS to take direction from the President to target schools, hospitals, churches, or any other tax-exempt entities as retribution for using their free speech rights.

“It is further unconscionable that the IRS would become a weapon of the Trump Administration to extort its perceived enemies, but the actions of the President and his operatives have now made this fear a reality,” they wrote. “We request that you review whether the President or his allies have taken any step to direct or pressure the IRS to take politically-motivated actions regarding the tax-exempt status of the President’s political targets.”

The lawmakers noted that losing tax exempt status can devastate a non-profit, underscoring the importance of an objective review of an organization’s actions. Only after a careful review, and an opportunity to appeal, can the IRS revoke tax exempt status, not at the arbitrary and erratic whims of one person.  

“Churches and synagogues, non-profit hospitals and clinics, charter and private schools, and any others that land on the President’s target list will be forced to relinquish their free speech rights in order to remain in existence, or otherwise face this organizational death sentence,” cautioned the senators. 

Full text of the letter is here.