Harmeet Dhillon resigns as head of DOJ civil rights division

Blanche praises Dhillon’s record as Democrats take control of Congress

Harmeet Dhillon is leaving the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division after Attorney General Todd Blanche said he accepted her resignation in a post on X. Blanche made the announcement on November 5. The Guardian described Dhillon as a Donald Trump ally and reported that she had led the division for 18 months.

Blanche said in the post: “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.”

The Guardian reported that Dhillon was the first high-ranking DOJ official to leave after the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress. The Guardian also said Democrats were expected to use their congressional power to aggressively investigate executive agencies, including DOJ. Bloomberg Law first reported Dhillon’s departure.

Under Dhillon, the Civil Rights Division dropped many cases alleging discrimination against racial minorities in voting, housing, employment and education. The Guardian said this shifted the division’s work away from its traditional civil-rights enforcement. Scores of career lawyers also left under Dhillon, reducing the division’s pool of enforcement experience.

Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division lawyer who now leads Justice Connection, a group for justice department alumni, said: “Harmeet Dhillon has been the most destructive, lawless and hateful head of the civil rights division in DoJ history.” Young added: “After she upended the division’s mission-critical work, the civil servants who dedicated their careers to protecting vulnerable communities were instead told to target them – and more than three-quarters of the division’s lawyers left. Dhillon wielded the enormous power of the justice department to threaten universities, state and local officials, and election workers in spurious cases that rarely won in court.”

The division also pursued claims alleging discrimination at universities, including claims that minorities were unfairly favored in admissions and claims of antisemitism against Jewish students. A whistleblower told The Guardian that investigations into the universities were conducted with a predetermined outcome and that lawyers were told to find a reason to file a lawsuit.

The Civil Rights Division oversaw investigations into the killings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents in Minnesota during an immigration-enforcement surge. Neither investigation had resulted in criminal charges as of The Guardian’s report.

The Guardian reported that the division also had some high-profile failures under Dhillon’s watch. It sued more than two dozen states for voter-roll information and lost every case. Several of the judges who ruled against the department were appointed by Donald Trump.

Dhillon, a prolific poster on X, would sometimes reveal civil rights investigations on the platform, a practice that startled longtime justice department lawyers because the department had a longstanding practice of not speaking publicly about investigations. The Guardian also reported that Dhillon had publicly used a slur for people with disabilities, whose civil rights her division is charged with protecting, and that she had described conservative influencers as “hoes.”

Dhillon was born in India and lived in the UK and New York before growing up in Smithfield, North Carolina. She told the Dartmouth alumni magazine last year: “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.”

Before joining the government, Dhillon ran her own law firm and served as vice-chair of the California GOP. After the 2020 election, she worked on lawsuits contesting election results.

Dhillon’s departure follows 18 months in which the division changed which cases it pursued, lost veteran lawyers and drew criticism from former officials. It also comes after Democrats took control of Congress, where they were expected to use their new power to investigate executive agencies, including DOJ.