Briefly, the Trump DOJ “appeared eager,” as the Times put it, to escalate its bogus civil investigation of the Harvard Law Review for allegedly discriminating against white men into a criminal probe with allegations of obstruction of justice.

The push comes as the White House regroups after a federal judge blocked its move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students.

"I’d love to have Harvard come back to the table to negotiate with us,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon told ABC News on Wednesday amid the Trump administration's ongoing feud with the university.

In its fight with Harvard, the Trump administration has focused on international students, who are critical to universities’ bottom lines and campus life.

A Defense Department official told others in the Trump administration that a $12 million biological threat research grant at Harvard shouldn’t be terminated because of national security risks, according to the school’s latest court filing.

Michael Bender, New York Times Correspondent and Amanda Carpenter, Writer and Editor for Protect Democracy joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss how the Trump Administration has escalated its feud with Harvard going so far to hire someone who was at one point a DOJ “cooperating witness” working for the Harvard Law Review.

The filing by Harvard University in the US District Court in Boston stated that since the university rejected a list of demands by the White House, the Trump administration had issued 957 orders.

Harvard University told a judge it has a trove of internal Trump administration documents that show the White House directed the abrupt freezing of more than $2 billion in federal funds headed to the university’s research programs,