Harmeet Dhillon exits after radical overhaul of Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
WASHINGTON (AP) — Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative attorney who oversaw a radical reshaping of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, celebrated the mass departures of career lawyers and spearheaded sweeping investigations into elite universities, said Thursday that she had resigned from her post.
Dhillon has been a powerful and divisive figure inside President Donald Trump’s Justice Department since her confirmation last year as assistant attorney general, where she dramatically changed the direction of a division created during the country’s Civil Rights Movement to protect the rights of minorities.
She said in a social media post Thursday that serving in the position has been “the honor of a lifetime.”
“We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls’ sports, and so much more. I want to thank President Trump for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to what’s next!” she wrote, using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Though the resignation was announced on the heels of midterm elections in which Democrats won back the House and Senate in a startling rebuke of Trump, Dhillon said in an interview with Fox News Digital that she had made the decision to depart weeks earlier but was asked by the White House to remain in her post until after the elections. She said that wanted to return to the private sector and had not been asked to resign.
“My decision, my choice,” she said.
Dhillon has drawn fierce criticism from former Justice Department attorneys who have accused her of abandoning the division's traditional civil rights enforcement mission in favor of conservative causes. More than three quarters of the unit's workforce at the beginning of Trump's second term have left — a move Dhillon has called the “biggest single personnel self-purge in DOJ history.”
She accused the past administration of pursuing a misguided liberal agenda and welcomed the departures of attorneys not aligned with the Trump administration's priorities, saying in an interview last year with conservative pundit Glenn Beck that “the job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws — not woke ideology.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post announcing Dhillon's departure that she had led the division with “conviction” and "defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor."
"The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors,” Blanche wrote.
During her tenure, the Civil Rights Division scrapped police reform settlements and investigations, and launched probes into universities the Trump administration saw as improperly prioritizing diversity and inclusion, discriminating against white applicants in the admissions process and failing to crack down on antisemitic conduct on campus.
Her pressure campaign against schools led to numerous settlements, and in one case, the resignation of the president of the University of Virginia. She also led an effort to pressure states to turn over detailed voter records despite repeated court losses.
Dhillon maintained a constant presence on social media, repeatedly receiving tips on X about alleged civil rights abuses that she would then publicly pledge to investigate.
Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division attorney who now leads a network of Justice Department alumni, called her “the most destructive, lawless and hateful” head of the division in department history.
“Americans’ civil rights don’t enforce themselves. For almost 70 years, the Civil Rights Division brought to fruition the civil rights laws that Americans demanded," Young said in an emailed statement Thursday. "Dhillon decimated it.”
Dhillon, a Sikh who was born in India and immigrated to the United States as a child, was a prominent figure in conservative legal and political circles even before being tapped to her Justice Department position. As a California lawyer, she was involved in high-profile causes, including a legal fight over that state's stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic.
She launched a bid to become chair of the Republican National Committee but lost in January 2023 to Ronna McDaniel in a race that exposed fierce internal divisions in the party.
Dhillon and her law firm also represented Trump himself as a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena for his testimony. The panel ultimately abandoned that effort and wrapped up its work without forcing the issue, prompting Dhillon to boast on the social media platform X that the committee had “waved the white flag.”
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
