{"id":155,"date":"2026-05-23T05:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=155"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:38:12","slug":"the-leader-of-trumps-assault-on-higher-education-has-a-troubled-legal-and-financial-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=155","title":{"rendered":"The Leader of Trump\u2019s Assault on Higher Education Has a Troubled Legal and Financial History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When Los Angeles attorney Leo Terrell, a legal commentator, lifelong Democrat and fiery fixture on Fox News, announced on the network\u2019s \u201cHannity\u201d show that he was voting for Donald Trump in 2020, the MAGA universe went wild. Oliver North hailed him on his \u201cReal American Heroes\u201d podcast. Fox News signed him on as a paid contributor, at a six-figure salary.<\/p>\n

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Terrell, meanwhile, rebranded himself as \u201cLeo 2.0,\u201d complete with red Trump-style caps he offered for sale online. Leo 1.0 had slammed Trump for cozying up to white supremacists, blamed him for a surge in violent attacks on Jews and donated to Democrats. Leo 2.0? He attacked \u201cDEI nonsense,\u201d compared Black Lives Matter to ISIS and declared the 2020 election was \u201cstolen from President Trump and America!\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, Terrell was rewarded for his loyalty when President-elect Trump, praising him as a \u201chighly respected civil rights attorney and political analyst\u201d with an \u201cincredibly successful career,\u201d named him senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department. Terrell assumed his marquee role a month later: as head of the multiagency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n

As a Black, Christian former Democrat with little previous engagement with Jewish causes, Terrell, now 70, seemed an improbable pick to lead the effort to \u201croot out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,\u201d as the task force announcement put it. But his zealous conversion and penchant for media bombast made him a perfect bullhorn for the task force\u2019s actual mission: to strong-arm colleges into stripping away any vestige of \u201cwokeness\u201d in their hiring, admissions, classes and research.<\/p>\n

In service of that goal, the government has abandoned due process in favor of media warfare, preemptive declarations of guilt and freezes on billions in critical federal funding.<\/p>\n

Terrell has become an invaluable player in this extraordinary pressure campaign. Before most of the task force\u2019s investigations had even launched, he publicly promised \u201cmassive lawsuits\u201d against \u201cJew-hating\u201d universities, including Harvard, the University of California, Los Angeles and dozens of others.<\/p>\n

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So far, the campaign has been effective. To preserve hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and contracts, Columbia and Brown have struck deals with the administration that cost them $220 million and $50 million, respectively, and go far beyond pledging tougher action to combat antisemitism. Columbia agreed to open academic programs and admissions decisions to outside monitoring. Brown pledged to ban transgender women from single-sex spaces and women\u2019s sports. Harvard has sued the administration to try to unfreeze $2.6 billion in federal research funds, but it\u2019s also trying to negotiate a settlement. Meanwhile, colleges nationwide are eliminating any remaining vestiges of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and shuttering multicultural centers lest the government come after them.<\/p>\n

Amid the upheaval Trump\u2019s task force has helped to sow, the history, motivations and behavior of its blustery leader have gone largely unexamined. ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed dozens of people whose paths have intersected with Terrell\u2019s and reviewed thousands of pages of court documents and financial records related to his career and life.<\/p>\n

The portrait that emerged is dramatically at odds with Trump\u2019s description of a \u201chighly respected\u201d and \u201cincredibly successful\u201d attorney. Peers in civil rights law said they always considered Terrell a minor player. Documents reveal a distinctly mixed legal track record, marred by malpractice suits, client disputes and mishandling a criminal case so badly that a federal appeals court lambasted his work as \u201cwoeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until his MAGA conversion, Terrell was beset by a litany of financial troubles, including nearly $400,000 in unpaid federal taxes, a personal bankruptcy filing and a trail of court judgments and liens brought by small businesses that worked for his law firm.<\/p>\n

Current and former lawyers at the Justice Department say Terrell is less engaged with assessing cases or negotiating settlements than he is with scaring universities into submission. They say he\u2019s voiced open disdain for what he calls \u201clawyer talk,\u201d berating career staff who try to follow proper procedures for investigating civil rights complaints.<\/p>\n

Despite his appetite for media attention, Terrell has volunteered little about himself. Friends and neighbors recall him walking a dog and bicycling and his fondness for golf. In the \u201cabout the author\u201d section for a self-published book, he wrote: \u201cIn his spare time, Mr. Terrell likes to work. His hobbies are work and working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell declined an interview request for this story and did not respond to written questions. In a brief phone conversation with a reporter, he explained, \u201cI don\u2019t do interviews with my life.\u201d Told some details of our reporting, he added, \u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on anything,\u201d and, finally, \u201cI\u2019m going to hang up respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Terrell\u2019s previous troubles turned up in administration vetting for his current job. Officials at the Justice Department and White House did not respond to questions about Terrell\u2019s role or his background.<\/p>\n

Jewish activists are divided on Terrell\u2019s approach, with some lauding it for rooting out anti-Jewish sentiment that emerged on campuses during pro-Palestinian protests and others bemoaning how he\u2019s weaponized antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Marcus, an Education Department official in the first Trump administration who has spent years agitating for stronger federal action against campus antisemitism, is a fan. \u201cWhat the president has gotten in Terrell,\u201d Marcus said, \u201cis someone with unique skills in delivering public messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

That messaging is camouflage, according to Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national network of Jewish groups. \u201cNo one should be under any illusion that this is about keeping Jewish students or faculty safe,\u201d she said. \u201cGutting cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s research does nothing to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell grew up in Carson, in south Los Angeles County, the fourth of seven siblings. Law was his second career, following a decade as a history and economics teacher in the Los Angeles public schools. He graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1990 and opened his own civil rights firm in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

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Almost immediately, Terrell began making a name for himself as a media personality with a decidedly progressive voice, becoming better known for his TV and radio commentary than for his courtroom achievements.<\/p>\n

Starting in 1991, after the police beating of a Black man, Rodney King, Terrell became a regular on local and national TV and radio condemning police brutality and racial injustice. Three years later, he snagged his breakthrough commentating gig: as a friend and supporter of O.J. Simpson. Terrell\u2019s role as a Simpson trial analyst produced a green-room friendship with Larry Elder, a conservative Black radio host in Los Angeles, who helped Terrell land his own talk show. \u201cI thought he was smart, feisty, opinionated and entertaining,\u201d Elder recalled. \u201cI thought he would be good radio, despite my disagreement with virtually everything he stood for at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell became a prized guest on Fox News. He spoke fast and loud, uttered every view with absolute certainty and was quick to interrupt, shout and attack, accusing one guest of tailoring his views \u201cto make a name for himself\u201d and another of trying to \u201chustle people to make money.\u201d Pressed during one \u201cHannity\u201d interview to say on air whether Simpson was guilty of murder, Terrell ripped off his ear piece and stormed out of the studio.<\/p>\n

Prominent Los Angeles lawyers said he was never a big player in the city\u2019s civil rights community. Carl Douglas, part of the Simpson defense team, said \u201cLeo was always a talker,\u201d not \u201ca baller.\u201d Connie Rice, former western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said Terrell \u201cwas never at the table for the big cases that made impact. He loved holding press conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell represented a Black teenager who\u2019d been expelled from a Los Angeles high school for punching a white referee during a football game after the referee allegedly had directed racial epithets at him. He took up the cause of a mentally ill, homeless Black woman who\u2019d been fatally shot by LA police after she wielded a 12-inch screwdriver at officers wanting to question whether she\u2019d stolen a shopping cart. (No criminal charges were brought against the officers, but Terrell won a $975,000 settlement for her family.)<\/p>\n

Now scornful of \u201cwoke\u201d practices and bias claims, Terrell once represented himself in a race-discrimination case against a parking company after a garage attendant refused to honor his free-parking validation from a shopping mall and told him he owed $10. A supervisor let Terrell leave without paying, but he still sued, saying he was singled out for being Black and demanding damages for \u201chumiliation, mental anguish and severe emotional distress.\u201d The suit was later settled for a confidential amount. Reached three decades later, an attorney for the parking company called Terrell\u2019s lawsuit \u201cabsurd \u2014 the worst discrimination case I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell always had side gigs: he self-published a book on workplace rights; he offered business consultations, corporate training seminars and mediations; he had a 900 number that charged $5 for the first minute and $2 for each additional minute for legal consultations.<\/p>\n

In 2001, he ran unsuccessfully first for Congress, then two years later for Los Angeles City Council. He routinely promoted himself as \u201can NAACP attorney,\u201d though the group said he\u2019d never been employed there.<\/p>\n

William Bloch, a veteran Los Angeles lawyer who brought two malpractice cases against Terrell, said Terrell acted as \u201cthe carnival barker\u201d to attract business, then failed to do the necessary legal work. In one sex-discrimination case, according to the resulting malpractice suit brought by Bloch, Terrell accepted a settlement from the city of Beverly Hills for \u201ca pittance\u201d despite explicit instructions from his client, a female police officer, to zealously pursue her claim. Bloch persuaded an appeals court to undo the settlement. After the officer received a $100,000 award, plus money for attorney fees and costs, she dropped the case against Terrell. In the second matter, a jail employee for the city of Beverly Hills said she paid $6,000 to retain Terrell in 2009 after he \u201cboasted of huge verdicts and settlements,\u201d only to have him accept a $1,000 settlement from the city without her permission. According to her claim, Terrell conducted \u201clittle or no discovery, including taking no depositions.\u201d The case was settled for a confidential amount, with no acknowledgement by Terrell of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In court filings, Terrell denied any negligence or responsibility for harm to his clients, insisting they had approved all of his actions and saying lawyers are \u201cnot a guarantor of the results of any professional services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a discredit to the legal profession,\u201d Bloch said.<\/p>\n

A low point in Terrell\u2019s legal career began in October 2009, when he was retained by the parents of Emond Logan, a 48-year-old California truck driver alleged to have transported more than a ton of cocaine to western Michigan as part of a multistate drug conspiracy.<\/p>\n

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Terrell rarely took on criminal cases, but he\u2019d played Little League baseball with Logan, whose family approached him after hearing his radio show. Terrell demanded a $100,000 retainer. To pay it, Logan\u2019s father sold much of his stock from more than 30 years at Pacific Bell Telephone and borrowed money from his daughter.<\/p>\n

Logan faced overwhelming evidence: a leader of the drug gang had testified against him, and the arresting agents had seized five cars (including a Maserati), three Rolex watches and a $125,000 diamond ring, items well beyond his truck-driving income. His court-appointed lawyer had negotiated a plea agreement capping Logan\u2019s prison time at 10 years.<\/p>\n

Still, Terrell urged Logan to blow up his \u201cbullshit\u201d deal, according to transcripts of their recorded jailhouse calls and Logan\u2019s later testimony. Logan followed Terrell\u2019s advice, despite prosecution warnings that such relatively generous terms would be off the table. Terrell arranged for Logan\u2019s pretrial release on bond. Four months later, Logan was back in custody after a government informant taped him threatening to kill his federal prosecutor. Terrell then urged him to accept a new plea offer, with no cap, and Logan was sentenced to 35 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Terrell \u201cdidn\u2019t do what he was supposed to do for the money,\u201d Eugene Logan, Emond\u2019s 93-year-old father, said in a telephone interview. \u201cHe told us he could get him off. If he\u2019d taken the plea, he\u2019d be out by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two courts denied Emond Logan\u2019s attempts to get his sentence overturned based on Terrell\u2019s counsel, but they excoriated Terrell\u2019s lawyering. U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney wrote in a 2017 decision that Terrell had provided \u201cabysmal advice.\u201d A year later, the decried Terrell\u2019s \u201cwoeful representation\u201d and said his overall conduct reflected \u201cpoorly on the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell\u2019s troubled legal practice left him with a worsening tangle of financial problems. Between 2004 and 2015, the IRS filed 11 liens against him for nearly $400,000 in unpaid taxes dating back to 1997. In October 2010, Terrell filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, reporting $736,938 in liabilities, $304,650 in assets and monthly income of just $4,000. Because he stopped appearing for required meetings, his bankruptcy case was dismissed and none of his obligations were legally erased. During this period, Terrell took out six new mortgage loans against his three-bedroom West LA condominium. The property was sold at foreclosure in 2013.<\/p>\n

Lorita Seaton was one of Terrell\u2019s many unpaid creditors. She\u2019d loaned him $40,000 in 2008 after he said he needed it to help cover his costs for a pending discrimination suit against Costco. In exchange, Terrell had signed a promissory note committing to pay her $60,000 by year-end. By February 2009, court records show, Terrell had won $422,000 at trial for his client and an additional $510,818 in legal fees and costs. Yet Seaton said she never got a penny.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had the audacity to tell me \u2018there\u2019s nothing you can do about it,\u2019\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cI want to go stand on the mountain and just holler about this asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 2006 and 2014, more than a dozen small vendors for Terrell\u2019s law firm went to court seeking to collect more than $170,000 in unpaid bills. A&B Reporting complained that it had prepared more than 30 deposition transcripts for Terrell, billing him more than $40,000 that remained unpaid. According to the company\u2019s 2011 lawsuit, Terrell finally sent a $5,000 check \u2014 which bounced.<\/p>\n

In February 2014, as his private financial straits worsened, Terrell formally updated his law office address: from the Beverly Hills tower where he\u2019d worked for more than two decades to a \u201csuite\u201d on Santa Monica Boulevard, which was actually a mailbox at a UPS store. He has filed just a single case in federal court since that year, according to PACER, a public database of court filings and dockets.<\/p>\n

Terrell\u2019s financial troubles factored into years of legal warfare among his siblings over their mother\u2019s care and modest estate. In a court filing, Terrell\u2019s younger brother Zachary accused him of borrowing repeatedly from their mother to save his \u201cflailing\u201d law practice and keep his home. Terrell acknowledged accepting a $30,000 gift from his mother after he\u2019d done free legal work for her. The estate case finally ended in late 2021, but Terrell received little because he had already borrowed against his expected inheritance. (Deborah Terrell-Trimble was the only Terrell sibling to respond to our calls and emails for comment, but she declined to answer questions about her brother or the case, saying the family was \u201ctrying to heal.\u201d)<\/p>\n

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Terrell eventually paid off or settled some of his debts, but there\u2019s no record of him paying the IRS or many of his other creditors, in California unless they\u2019re renewed.<\/p>\n

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According to publicly filed liens, he still owed the IRS $92,000 at the beginning of 2024. Yet on the financial disclosure he filed for his Justice Department job, which covered that period, he listed his liabilities as \u201cnone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Terrell nor the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment about this omission.<\/p>\n

Amid the financial pressures at home and at work, Terrell underwent a startling political transformation. In 2019 Fox interviews, he had called Trump \u201ca racial divider\u201d and said he sent out \u201cdog whistles\u201d like \u201cno president on this planet in our country\u2019s history.\u201d Less than a year later, he went all in for Trump. Fox News hired him as a paid contributor soon thereafter, at an annual salary of $250,000.<\/p>\n

In interviews on Fox and other conservative outlets, Terrell offered two reasons for his ideological makeover. The first was the growing influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, which he complained had \u201chijacked\u201d the Democratic Party, citing far-left calls to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d He also objected to Joe Biden\u2019s comment during an interview with a Black radio host that \u201cif you have a problem figuring out whether you\u2019re for me or Trump, then you ain\u2019t Black,\u201d calling it \u201coffensive and insulting to every African American because we don\u2019t vote as one group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next four years, Terrell displayed the fervor of the converted. Biden was an \u201cidiot\u201d; Kamala Harris (whose name he repeatedly mispronounced) was only chosen as his running mate \u201cbecause she\u2019s a woman and because of her race.\u201d Democrats were members of the \u201canti-Israel\u201d and \u201cpro-Hamas party.\u201d Far-right agitator Laura Loomer was \u201ca journalist,\u201d while NBC\u2019s Kristen Welker was \u201ca DEI hire.\u201d In 2023, Terrell made a pilgrimage to Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he posed poolside, making a thumbs-up gesture. Shortly before starting his Justice Department gig, Terrell made sure he was leaving no culture-war stone unturned. \u201cI hate anti-Semitism! I hate attacks on Catholic Families! I hate attacks on parents expressing their First Amendment Rights at School Board Meetings! I hate Sanctuary Cities! I hate DEI! I hate Critical Race Theory!\u201d he declared on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this guy,\u201d Trump gushed, introducing \u201cLeo 2.0\u201d in February at a White House commemoration of Black History Month. \u201cHe was a radical Democrat, he became a radical Republican.\u201d Terrell returned the love, telling the audience: \u201cWe are in the presence of the greatest president of all time!\u201d<\/p>\n

What motivated him? Larry Elder, who was on air with Terrell as he announced his conversion and coined the nickname \u201cLeo 2.0,\u201d declined to speculate: \u201cI really don\u2019t care about why Leo did his 180. I\u2019m just glad he finally did!\u201d<\/p>\n

Juan Williams, the Fox News senior political analyst, however, called the change in Terrell\u2019s views \u201cperformative.\u201d He said Terrell saw an opportunity to cast himself as \u201ccoming out of the liberal matrix, and \u2018now I\u2019ve seen the light.\u2019 He understood the value in that universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it is a performance, it\u2019s one Terrell has continued at the Justice Department, where the effect of his pugnacious style and footloose approach to the law has alarmed career staff accustomed to following strict rules regarding regulatory due process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s lawyer talk!\u201d Terrell regularly thundered to Justice Department lawyers. \u201cI don\u2019t want to hear any lawyer talk!\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days after his Jan. 23 appointment, several said, Terrell emphatically rejected efforts by agency veterans to explain the legally required steps to bring civil rights complaints against universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeo did not want to hear our views about how to investigate, how to find a violation, how to proceed in these cases,\u201d said a Justice Department veteran who heard Terrell\u2019s comments. \u201cNo \u2018lawyer talk\u2019 at the Justice Department! It was just incredibly bizarre.\u201d The attorney was one of 10 current and former lawyers with the agency\u2019s Civil Rights Division interviewed for this story, most of whom asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

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At another meeting early in his tenure, Terrell told career Justice Department attorneys he thought they were out to thwart his agenda, according to two attendees. \u201cHe immediately came in and openly told us that he did not trust any of us or believe anything we said,\u201d one recalled.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department antisemitism task force, which includes officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration, was announced on Feb. 3. It immediately announced antisemitism investigations of four medical schools regarding \u201coffensive\u201d pro-Palestinian \u201csymbols and messaging\u201d displayed by students during their 2024 commencement ceremonies. Then, over the next five weeks, the task force and Trump administration announced plans to investigate 10 universities; the \u201cimmediate\u201d cancellation of hundreds of millions in federal funding for Columbia; an investigation of the entire University of California System; and \u201cpotential enforcement actions\u201d against 60 colleges in 24 states.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether Terrell had a hand in choosing the task force\u2019s targets, but he took the lead in making the government\u2019s case against them publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are suing every one of these universities guilty of antisemitism,\u201d Terrell told Fox News host Mark Levin on March 9. \u201cWe\u2019re going to bankrupt these universities. We are going to take away every single federal dollar.\u201d Antisemitism, shouted Terrell, waving his arms, \u201cis rampant across the country!\u201d Hate-crime charges, he vowed, would be brought against \u201cthese people who hate Jews.\u201d Terrell blamed campus antisemitism on the MAGA movement\u2019s usual suspects: \u201cthe Democrat Party\u201d and \u201cblue cities [that] have turned their back on Jewish Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe academic system in this country has been hijacked by the left,\u201d he declared, \u201chas been hijacked by the Marxists!\u201d<\/p>\n

Four days later, the task force announced plans to meet with leaders of four cities \u201crocked\u201d by campus antisemitism (New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago) to determine whether federal intervention was warranted.<\/p>\n

Career civil rights officials, many of whom had served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, were horrified. The Justice Department didn\u2019t publicly announce who it was investigating or planned to sue. It didn\u2019t reach findings before it had found cause in a completed investigation that typically takes months or even years. And investigating Democratic leaders in \u201cblue cities\u201d in the name of fighting campus antisemitism was far outside the department\u2019s charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process is turned upside down,\u201d said Ejaz Baluch, a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division who left in May and is now a lecturer at Columbia Law School. \u201cWe were given a conclusion and told to find supporting evidence to justify it. It\u2019s basically civil rights enforcement as a political tool. These things don\u2019t actually solve antisemitism. It\u2019s about silencing political dissent they disagree with.\u201d Former civil rights deputy chief Jen Swedish, who worked at the Justice Department for 15 years, called the actions \u201ccover for attacking higher ed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in early February, a division-wide posting seeking attorneys to help staff the antisemitism task force had drawn just three volunteers. Harmeet Dhillon, Trump\u2019s appointee as assistant attorney general for civil rights (and one of his former personal lawyers), later told a Federalist Society conference that this revealed the career staff\u2019s lack of concern about antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Current and former division attorneys interviewed by ProPublica and The Chronicle said the lawyers had misgivings about the administration\u2019s tactics and were reluctant to work with Terrell, who already had a reputation for berating staffers. One said he\u2019d repeatedly yelled at her.<\/p>\n

A memorable episode came in March, when Terrell loudly berated a revered 82-year-old civil rights attorney, Franz Marshall, over the failure to quickly terminate federal oversight in a Louisiana school desegregation case, a goal of Republican state officials.<\/p>\n

Marshall, who had represented the government in hundreds of desegregation cases over five decades, tried to explain that closing the case required a motion by the school district to lift the order, which the Justice Department could support or oppose, and review by a federal judge.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWho told you that you had to do it this way?\u201d Terrell interrupted. \u201cI want you to name names!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the process,\u201d Marshall assured him. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe you\u2019ve been doing it for too long!\u201d Terrell snapped. The tirade, which lasted nearly an hour, was audible to dozens of attorneys waiting outside the conference room for an upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n

Marshall (who could not be reached for comment) resigned a short time later, joining a wholesale exodus from resignations, firings and reassignments that has totaled about 70% of the Civil Rights Division\u2019s 365 attorneys since January. The Louisiana consent decree was lifted on April 29.<\/p>\n

In late April, Terrell had convened a meeting with some of the remaining lawyers to address concerns about working with him. \u201cThat crazy guy you see on TV is not here,\u201d he insisted, according to one attendee. \u201cThe guy before you is a civil rights attorney. There\u2019s an urban myth that I scream and yell. I\u2019ve never yelled in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little evidence Terrell has been directly involved in negotiations with campuses under investigation; instead, those appear to have been increasingly steered by the White House. Terrell has voiced distrust of any bargaining, preferring to \u201clay the hammer on them with lawsuits,\u201d as he told Justice Department lawyers in an April meeting. In mid-July, when word leaked that the Trump administration was about to announce an agreement with Columbia to restore its funding, Terrell questioned whether it was tough enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not \u2018SELLOUT\u2019 Jewish Americans,\u201d he posted on X. \u201cNO DEALS!\u201d<\/p>\n

Six days later, the administration announced a $221 million settlement with Columbia, setting the stage for a string of similar deals with other colleges.<\/p>\n

The extremism of Terrell\u2019s messaging also doesn\u2019t bother Dov Hikind, a former New York state Democratic assemblyman representing Brooklyn and the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. \u201cIf Leo Terrell and others are speaking tough, I don\u2019t lose any sleep over that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the administration\u2019s approach alarms other Jewish groups and erstwhile academic allies in the fight against campus antisemitism. The task force is \u201cusing legitimate fears of antisemitism in ways that are both dangerous and wrong,\u201d said Amy Spitalnick, of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. When Terrell proclaimed on Fox News that the task force would \u201cbankrupt\u201d targeted universities, \u201cthey were saying the quiet part out loud,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Whether Terrell is good for Jews or bad for Jews, his conversion has certainly been good for him. Leo 2.0 now has 2.5 million followers on his personal X account, and his speaking fee runs between $50,000 and $100,000; his government salary is $167,603. Terrell has attained \u201ca rock star persona\u201d in the Trump administration, said Kenneth Marcus, the former Education Department official and antisemitism activist. \u201cPeople are very much drawn to him in a way that\u2019s disproportionate to his rank in the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no sign administration officials, including Terrell, will let up in their campaign against higher education. Since late July, even as negotiations with Harvard dragged on and Brown\u2019s settlement was announced, the administration froze $108 million in funding from Duke University\u2019s medical system, citing \u201csystemic racial discrimination\u201d in hiring and admissions. It also halted more than $584 million from UCLA as punishment for tolerating a \u201chostile environment\u201d for Jews and demanded $1 billion to restore the flow of government money. Duke has not publicly responded to the discrimination complaints. The University of California\u2019s president, James B. Milliken, has pledged to work with the administration, but he said a $1 billion penalty would \u201ccompletely devastate our country\u2019s greatest public university system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Other colleges are just trying to stay out of the administration\u2019s dragnet \u2014 and Terrell\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s scared schools stiff, so everyone is scrambling,\u201d said Brett Sokolow, an attorney and higher education consultant whom college and university leaders have turned to for advice.<\/p>\n

Read more Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump\u2019s Anti-Diversity Push<\/a><\/p>\n

Terrell\u2019s approach, he said, is \u201cway over the top \u2014 and effective as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leo Terrell\u2019s past is at odds with Trump\u2019s description of an \u201cincredibly successful\u201d attorney. Documents obtained by ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education reveal a trail of legal disputes and unpaid debts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13,10],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-education","tag-trump-administration"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Leader of Trump\u2019s Assault on Higher Education Has a Troubled Legal and Financial History - Moving Services America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=155\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Leader of Trump\u2019s Assault on Higher Education Has a Troubled Legal and Financial History - Moving Services America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leo Terrell\u2019s past is at odds with Trump\u2019s description of an \u201cincredibly successful\u201d attorney. 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