DOJ Attorney Leading Harvard Lawsuit Once Called Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ His Favorite Book: Report
The lawyer representing the DOJ in Harvard’s funding lawsuit, Michael Velchik, accuses Harvard of exhibiting ‘wanton indifference to antisemitism.’
A Department of Justice attorney leading President Trump’s legal battle against Harvard University over alleged campus antisemitism is now facing scrutiny over his past fascination with Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”
Michael Velchik, a Harvard alumnus, joined the DOJ as senior counsel earlier this year and was assigned the administration’s funding lawsuit against Harvard over the summer. During the case’s first hearing in July, Mr. Velchik, the sole DOJ lawyer present, argued the government had legitimate grounds to freeze billions of dollars in grants and contracts to Harvard given the school’s “wanton indifference to antisemitism.”
A new Boston Globe report, however, is raising questions about Mr. Velchik’s own views regarding Jewish people.
According to the Globe, Mr. Velchik, while completing his senior year at Harvard, was assigned to write a paper in Latin “from the perspective of a controversial historical or literary figure justifying your actions and defending yourself against potential accusations.”
The assignment, which was reviewed by the Globe, offered students the option to choose a “classical figure such as Nero or Cleopatra; a mythological figure such as Medea or Theseus; or anyone from the post-classical world, whether a Shakespearean villain or a twentieth-century tycoon.” The students were directed to focus on “syntactic rather than historical (or literary) accuracy.”
Mr. Velchik chose to write from the perspective of Hitler, three sources told the Globe. Two of the sources had read the paper and said that they found it “disturbing.” One source noted, “At Harvard in 2011, no one would say that Hitler was a controversial figure.”
The instructor, reportedly “unnerved” by Mr. Velchik’s choice, refused to grade the paper, and instructed the student to re-do the assignment, the three sources told the Globe.
Eighteen months later, Mr. Velchik, as a newly enrolled Harvard Law School student, told a peer that “Mein Kampf” was his top-ranked read of the year. “[I]s it bad that my favorite class at harvard was nietzsche and my favorite book i’ve read this year is mein kampf?” Mr. Velchik wrote in a June 2013 email message, according to the Globe.
Mr. Velchik praised Hitler’s political manifesto in a separate nine-page email message sent a few months later. While providing brief reviews of the 76 books he claimed to have read that year, Mr. Velchik called “Mein Kampf” “fascinating” and stated that Hitler “certainly excelled as an orator, and his writing reflects oratory,” according to the Globe.
The Harvard Law student added that the Nazi leader “Understands the importance of propaganda. Thought that the timing of a speech was important: better late at night!” According to the Globe, Mr. Velchik made no mention of “Hitler’s role as perpetrator of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews” in his review.
Mr. Velchik has not yet commented on the report and failed to respond to the Globe’s interview requests. The Sun’s attempts to reach Mr. Velchik have so far been unsuccessful.
An assistant attorney general at the DOJ, Brett Shumate, defended his colleague, telling the Globe that “Michael has handled some of the Civil Division’s most important cases defending the President’s agenda in court with the utmost respect and professionalism.”
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This article was updated to clarify the status of attempts by the Sun to contact Mr. Velchik.
