US justice department sues Harvard over admissions records access

People take photos near a John Harvard statue, left, on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photograph: Steven Senne/AP

The Department of Justice filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of failing to hand over documents and comply with a federal investigation into alleged racial discrimination in its admissions process, in the latest escalation of Donald Trump’s long-running legal pursuit of the nation’s oldest university.

Harvard stressed in a statement that it was responding to inquiries “in good faith” and prepared to engage “according to the process required by law”.