By Michelle Watson and Brad Lendon

(CNN) — The Trump administration is demanding Harvard University give it access to all university reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus generated since October 2023, as it ramps up a confrontation with the school that risks billions in federal money amid a broader push to bring elite US colleges in line with its political ideology.

Harvard, which has emerged as a symbol of defiance against the Trump administration, must turn over all reports generated by school task forces on combatting antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus, including drafts never released to the public, a letter Saturday from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights to Harvard leadership says.

The letter, published by The Free Press, also requests the names of anyone involved in preparing the reports and says they should be made available for interviews by federal officials.

The letter is among the latest twists in the Trump administration’s escalating fight with Harvard over institutional oversight and independence. It comes as some Jewish organizations and students at Harvard say the White House’s recent threats – from pulling research funding to ending its eligibility to host international students – are not making them safer or more welcome but instead, as some wrote, “pawns in a broader political agenda.”

The Trump administration has said it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and contracts after the Ivy League school refused to submit to demands, including it eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the White House has said are “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

Another $1 billion in federal health research contracts to Harvard could also be withheld, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, as the Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of the university and the administration has threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students.

Other universities, including Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern, also have seen federal funding paused amid similar demands.

WSJ: Another $1B in jeopardy for Harvard

The threat of rescinding a further $1 billion in federal money follows the White House’s fury after Harvard made public an April 11 letter from the federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, demanding it allow federal government oversight of admissions, hiring and the ideology of students and staff – on top of other demands laid out in a prior letter – people familiar with Harvard’s response said, the Journal reported Sunday.

CNN has reached out to Harvard and the White House for comment.

Harvard strongly rejected the Trump administration’s demands in the April 11 letter, with school President Alan M. Garber saying in a statement the “University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

The demands go beyond the power of the federal government, and the majority “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” rather than combating antisemitism, the university president has said.

The latest back-and-forth between the US government and America’s oldest university marks a sea change in how the Trump administration intends to engage with Harvard, according to the newspaper.

Before the letter’s release, “the administration was planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia University, but now officials want to apply even more pressure to the nation’s most prominent university, according to the people,” the Journal reports. “People familiar with Harvard’s response say there was no agreement to keep the letter private, and that its contents – including requirements that Harvard allow federal government oversight of admissions, hiring and the ideology of students and staff – were a nonstarter.”

Columbia University, on the heels of President Donald Trump’s revocation of $400 million in federal funding over campus protests, last month made policy changes in a dispute over federal funding, including restrictions on demonstrations, new disciplinary procedures and immediately reviewing its Middle East curriculum.

Although it has prompted a furious response from the university, the letter sent to the university April 11 may not have been meant to be sent at that time, The New York Times reported Friday. It was believed inside the administration the letter first would be circulated to members of the task force, the Times reported, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter.

A White House official confirmed its authenticity Saturday, telling CNN the White House “stands by the letter.” Garber said the demands go beyond the power of the federal government, and the majority “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard” rather than combating antisemitism.

Feds’ possible overreach concerns ADL chief

The Anti-Defamation League’s CEO and national director also has expressed concern the Trump administration may be overreaching in the Harvard case, looking to punish the university outside of the antisemitism debate that has simmered since contentions protests last spring over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza sparked rampant fear among Jewish students and staff on many US campuses.

“The issue of combating antisemitism on campus should be addressed on its own process and merits. Other debates on higher education may be important, but they can and should be resolved separate from fighting antisemitism on campus,” Jonathan Greenblatt wrote Friday in an article published in the Times of Israel.

Similarly, Harvard’s chapter of Hillel, a global advocacy organization for Jewish college students, wrote last week on social media: “(D)espite positive elements of the government’s recent demands (such as streamlining disciplinary processes), the current, escalating federal assault against Harvard – shuttering apolitical, life-saving research; targeting the university’s tax-exempt status; and threatening all student visas, including those of Israeli students who are proud veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and forceful advocates for Israel on campus – is neither focused nor measured, and stands to substantially harm the very Jewish students and scholars it purports to protect.”

An open letter signed by more than 100 Jewish students at Harvard says tying government academic demands to complaints of antisemitism makes them “pawns in a broader political agenda.”

“We have a variety of views on what actions constitute antisemitism and how to address it,” reads the letter shared with CNN. “But we overwhelmingly oppose these drastic funding cuts to our university.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a graduate of Harvard and a Democrat, said Trump’s push to revoke Harvard’s not-for-profit status is “outrageous,” she told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It’s part of this continued playbook that Donald Trump has been using, which is to silence critics.”

“First he went after the law firms, then he went after companies, then he went after everyday Americans. Now he’s going after colleges and universities, using any and all tactics to try to shut them down, to silence them,” Healey said.

CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Betsy Klein, Andy Rose, Nicki Brown and Liz Enochs contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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