Harmeet Dhillon resigns as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, two days after the midterms
NPR lays out how the division changed under her; CBS has her resignation letter and the report that Trump had wanted her fired after a 60 Minutes interview.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who ran the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, resigned on Thursday, November 5, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on X. NPR says she is the first senior department official to leave since Democrats won Congress. In her resignation letter, seen by CBS, she says she told White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in early October that she would step down after the midterms; two sources told CBS that President Trump had demanded she be fired after her October 18 "60 Minutes" interview, and officials stalled.
Under Dhillon, more than 75% of the division's staff departed (CBS), and it shifted toward priorities such as ending DEI programs, transgender athletes in girls' sports, gun rights and campus antisemitism. It filed 31 lawsuits against mostly Democratic-led states and D.C. seeking unredacted voter rolls (CBS); NBC reports federal judges dismissed 27 of them. On Election Day it sent more than 1,000 monitors to polling sites, a record.
The White House said she did a "fantastic job." Stacey Young of Justice Connection, a group of department alumni, called her "the most destructive, lawless, and hateful head of the Civil Rights Division in DOJ history."
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United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
After exploring Head of Justice Department office on civil rights resigns, for the division's history and what it is meant to do, see the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
The division enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, sex, disability, religion and national origin.
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