Harmeet Dhillon Resigns as Head of DOJ Civil Rights Division After Gutting It
Dhillon, who oversaw the departure of more than three quarters of the division's workforce, says she is returning to private practice after the midterms.
Harmeet Dhillon, the conservative lawyer who led the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division through a sweeping overhaul of its mission and workforce, resigned Thursday. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the departure and thanked her for her service.
Dhillon told Fox News Digital she decided weeks ago to return to the private sector and that the White House asked her to stay until after the midterm elections, which Democrats won by taking both the House and the Senate. She said she was not asked to resign. "My decision, my choice," she said. Her spokesperson said she will return to her firm, the Dhillon Law Group.
Under her leadership, more than three quarters of the division's workforce left early in President Donald Trump's second term, a loss Dhillon herself called the "biggest single personnel self-purge in DOJ history." One report put the number of career attorneys pushed out at roughly 300. The division scrapped police reform settlements and investigations and redirected its resources toward challenging diversity programs and investigating antisemitism on college campuses.
Those university probes produced settlements and the resignation of the president of the University of Virginia. Dhillon also pressed states for detailed voter records, despite repeated losses in court.
Blanche praised her "conviction," and said she defended the civil liberties of every American. Critics were far harsher. Stacey Young, who leads a network of Justice Department alumni, called Dhillon the "most destructive, lawless and hateful" head of the division in the department's history and said she "decimated it."
Dhillon was born in India and immigrated as a child with her Sikh family. As a California lawyer she challenged the state's COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and sued over voter citizenship verification. She lost a 2023 bid to chair the Republican National Committee to Ronna McDaniel, and she represented Trump when a House committee subpoenaed his testimony about the January 6 attack.
The Associated Press did not report who will lead the division next. Her exit lands as Democrats prepare to take over House committees with subpoena power and a stated interest in how the department has used its civil rights authority. The division's court fights over voter data and election practices are still unresolved, and a successor will inherit them along with a depleted staff.
The timing of her exit fits a broader pattern of departures after the election. Supporters inside the administration credit Dhillon with refocusing the division on what they describe as overlooked civil rights claims, including religious liberty and campus antisemitism. Opponents say the same record shows a division that stopped doing much of its traditional work, such as policing discrimination in housing, lending and local law enforcement. Both sides agree she changed the division more than any recent head, and that the fight over her legacy will play out in court filings and congressional hearings through the new year.
