Civil rights board slips into Dem hands amid ‘threats’ to oust chair

Inaction by Republican lawmakers has stymied the Trump administration's efforts to wrest control of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, allowing the panel to slip back into Democratic hands for the time being.

That could have significant implications for the commission’s ongoing investigation into antisemitism on college campuses — making it more likely that the probe will scrutinize the Trump administration’s unprecedented pressure campaign against universities and dismantling of federal civil rights offices.

The commission lapsed into a 4-3 Democratic majority in December, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune failed to appoint a member to the 8-seat commission after a GOP appointee’s term expired.

A spokesperson for Thune told POLITICO that the senator’s staff is “working on a number of appointments right now and look forward to filling this slot.”

Until then, the commission’s work will continue under a Democratic majority and Democrat-appointed Chair Rochelle Garza, who has maintained her role despite a purported demotion by the White House — and more recent threats that she would be detained by federal authorities and forcibly removed from her position.

“A lot of this is about intimidation and it's about bullying and ... taking over the commission,” she told POLITICO. “If we are here to champion civil rights we have to do it above board and we cannot let anybody push us around, it doesn’t matter if you're the president of the United States, there are rules.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told POLITICO in April that Trump “reserves the right to fire anyone he wants” within the executive branch, shortly after Garza declined to comply with the administration’s decision to replace her as chair.

There’s an open seat on the panel after commissioner Gail Heriot’s term expired on Dec. 12. Heriot, an affirmative action critic who is formally listed as an independent, has been appointed by Republicans to multiple terms, most recently in 2019.

She stunned commission members and staffers last year by alleging a campaign of threats against Democratic members during an unusually contentious business meeting, according to four people who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive circumstances.

The alleged threats also include freezing the pay of staffers who work for Democrat appointees and terminating others if their bosses do not accede to the White House’s moves to demote Garza and the Democratic vice chair, Heriot said during the September meeting.

“I would love to be able to move full speed ahead on all of this and vote in favor of the President's” nominees to replace the panel’s leadership, the former commissioner said. “But there is a much deeper problem … and that is that threats have been made to get the four Democratic Commissioners to vote ‘yes.’ I cannot be a party to that.”

Three other commission staff members familiar with the developments confirmed that employees heard about vague threats to their jobs and to physically remove the Democratic chair. The White House said last spring that it was “de-designating” Garza from her post, and elevating a Republican member instead. But the commission has not put the White House’s directive to a vote.

“I have no reason to believe that these threats are coming from President Trump himself or from his top advisors … but it does seem to be coming from somewhere in the administration,” Heriot said at the meeting, adding that she could not offer further details.

Heriot, whose term expired Dec. 12, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the commission told POLITICO that its campus antisemitism investigation is ongoing and a final report is expected in September.

Colleges and universities “are cooperating with the investigation” and have sent back some interrogatories and data, the commission said. “Relevant agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services, have been in communication with the Commission [and we are] currently awaiting responses and information from these federal agencies.”

Garza told POLITICO she would continue to resist the moves to oust her, which she views as unlawful. “I’m not going to let anyone threaten or intimidate me into doing something I know is wrong,” she said.