DOJ Civil Rights Chief Harmeet Dhillon Resigns; Attorney General Todd Blanche Accepts Her Departure
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced in a statement on X on November 5 that he has accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Dhillon had led the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division since April 2025, a tenure of 18 months, and is the first senior Justice Department official to depart since the November 3 midterm elections. The Justice Department is headquartered at 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
"Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months. 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," Blanche wrote. The statement did not name a successor, and Dhillon has not publicly released a statement explaining her reasons for leaving.
Dhillon was nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2024, confirmed by the Senate on April 3, 2025, and sworn in by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 7, 2025. She previously founded the Dhillon Law Group law firm in San Francisco and the nonprofit Center for American Liberty, practicing in First Amendment free speech, civil rights, and campaign and election law. The Civil Rights Division, created under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status, national origin, and citizenship status.
During her tenure, the division sued dozens of states ahead of the midterm elections demanding that they turn over voter information, lawsuits that courts tossed; it also investigated potential racial preferences in university admissions and employment, and sued UCLA and Harvard for allegedly allowing antisemitism to flourish on campus. Dhillon said in August 2025 that about 300 of the division's roughly 400 lawyers had left in the first seven months of the new administration, about 75 percent.
According to Bloomberg's earlier reporting, Dhillon told reporters in August that she planned to return to her California law firm, the Dhillon Law Group, after her time at the department. She had also told colleagues she would leave the department after the midterms.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部民权司助理司法部长 Harmeet K. Dhillon 官方肖像（2025年）。照片：美国司法部，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon (2025). Photo by the U.S. Department of Justice, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
