Harmeet Dhillon, an ally of Donald Trump who led the justice department's civil rights division, is stepping down from her post after roughly a year and a half in the role.
Attorney general Todd Blanche announced the departure in a post on X on Thursday. "Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months," he wrote, adding that she "has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor." He said the department was grateful for her service and wished her success.
Dhillon is the first high-ranking justice department official to leave since the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress. Democrats are expected to use their new power to aggressively investigate executive agencies, including the justice department. Bloomberg Law first reported her resignation.
In her time leading the division, Dhillon dramatically reshaped it, steering its mission away from its traditional work protecting the civil rights of minorities. Under her leadership, the department dropped many cases alleging discrimination against racial minorities in voting, housing, employment and education. Scores of career lawyers departed, producing an exodus of civil rights enforcement expertise.
Dhillon also aggressively pursued claims of discrimination at universities, including allegations that minorities were unfairly favored in admissions and claims of antisemitism against Jewish students. A whistleblower has said the investigations into the schools were conducted with a predetermined outcome and that lawyers were told to find a reason to file a lawsuit.
The division oversaw investigations into the killings of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents in Minnesota during an immigration enforcement surge, and neither case has resulted in criminal charges. The division also sued more than two dozen states seeking voter roll information and lost every one of those cases, with several of the judges who ruled against the department having been appointed by Donald Trump.
Stacey Young, a former civil rights division lawyer who now leads Justice Connection, a group for justice department alumni, condemned Dhillon's record. "Harmeet Dhillon has been the most destructive, lawless and hateful head of the civil rights division in DoJ history," she said. Young added that after Dhillon "upended the division's mission-critical work," civil servants who had dedicated their careers to protecting vulnerable communities "were instead told to target them," and more than three-quarters of the division's lawyers left.
A prolific poster on X, Dhillon at times revealed civil rights investigations on the platform, a practice that startled longtime justice department lawyers because the department has long declined to speak publicly about investigations. She has also publicly used a slur for people with disabilities, whose civil rights her division is charged with protecting, and has described conservative influencers as "hoes."
Born in India, Dhillon lived in the UK and New York before growing up in Smithfield, North Carolina. "There were Klan signs on the highway where I grew up. I'm used to being an outsider. My superpower is not really caring what people think about me," she told the Dartmouth alumni magazine last year. Before joining the government, she ran her own law firm, served as vice-chair of the California GOP and, after the 2020 election, worked on lawsuits contesting the results.
