House widens Claudine Gay probe after new plagiarism accusations hit Harvard president

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Harvard president facing 40 new allegations of plagiarism

Fox News' Molly Line reports the latest on the allegations. 

House Republicans are widening their investigation into Harvard President Claudine Gay as accusations of plagiarism in her scholarly work continue to pile up.

The Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote to Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker on Wednesday demanding more information on the charges against Gay.

"An allegation of plagiarism by a top school official at any university would be reason for concern, but Harvard is not just any university. It styles itself as one of the top educational institutions in the country," Foxx wrote. 

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Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, is under fire for new plagiarism accusations. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

She pointed out that Harvard’s federal funding relies on its adherence to certain academic standards, which in part mandate that an institution "works to prevent cheating and plagiarism as well as to deal forthrightly with any instances in which they occur."

"Our concern is that standards are not being applied consistently, resulting in different rules for different members of the academic community," the letter said.

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"If a university is willing to look the other way and not hold faculty accountable for engaging in academically dishonest behavior, it cheapens its mission and the value of its education. Students must be evaluated fairly, under known standards – and have a right to see that faculty are, too."

Rep. Virginia Foxx led a letter to Harvard Corporation about the plagiarism accusations. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Harvard has been grappling with an avalanche of accusations that Gay plagiarized multiple past academic works, including her own Ph.D. dissertations at the university.

Gay had already been under fire after dodging questions on antisemitism on college campuses during a House hearing on the issue by the Education and Workforce Committee. She specifically received blowback for failing to sufficiently answer whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be punished. 

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In her Wednesday letter, Foxx requested copies of "all documents and communications concerning the initial allegations of plagiarism and the ‘independent review’ of President Claudine Gay’s scholarship" as well as "all documents and communications concerning allegations of plagiarism by President Gay and the University’s public response to media inquiries about those allegations."

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She also requested information on the university’s process for handling plagiarism and compliance with academic standards.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for comment but did not immediately hear back.