WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday said it was searching for Civil Rights Division lawyers to investigate a single complaint involving Asian-American students in a college admissions affirmative-action case.

In a statement, the department sought to play down its recruitment of Civil Rights Division lawyers for what it had billed in an internal announcement as work on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

The Justice statement was responding to news articles on Tuesday about the project to scrutinize affirmative-action admissions policies that seek to maintain diverse student bodies by giving an edge to members of disadvantaged or underrepresented groups, like black or Latino students, over other applicants with comparable or better test scores.

The New York Times first reported on an internal announcement for employees to be detailed to work on that project, framing it as apparently being about hunting for practices deemed to discriminate against white people. A Washington Post article about the project cited an unnamed official who also described the project in such terms.