WASHINGTON — Department of Justice civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon resigned Thursday, two days after the GOP took a shellacking in the midterm elections.
“Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement.
“She has 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.”
Dhillon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The India-born attorney had helmed the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division since April 2025, handling the Trump administration’s lawsuits against top US universities accused of fostering antisemitism on campus.
She also investigated schools for engaging in race-based admissions, hiring or training practices after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending the practice and took charge of the DOJ’s election integrity efforts.
The civil rights chief told “Pod Force One” host Miranda Devine in December that she was proud to oversee “the biggest single personnel self-purge in DOJ history” of liberal lawyers from its ranks.
Nearly 70% of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division workforce quit after she took over, either over differences with the administration or in response to offers of payouts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) payouts.
“I think there was some denial and they had crying sessions together,” Dhillon said. “Frankly, it was shocking to them. They had unhappy hours. It was, like, a lot of drama and handwringing.
A former vice chair of the California Republican Party, Dhillon founded the Dhillon Law Group and served as a civil rights lawyer in private practice before entering the Trump administration.
She also helped launch the conservative nonprofit Center for American Liberty.
